


The Spirograph Spire

by IncendiarySnuffbox



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Abuse, Action/Adventure, Animal Abuse, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Caliginous Romance | Kismesis, Canon Universe, Electrocution, F/M, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Mind Control, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2020-03-10 00:32:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 32,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18927658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IncendiarySnuffbox/pseuds/IncendiarySnuffbox
Summary: Five youths learn of their destiny: to climb a mountainous tower fraught with peril, with the promise of unimaginable reward at its summit. But they will meet opposition from all sides, including from within…





	1. Waste Zoners

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time posting on the Archive! Criticism is welcome!

You’ve been blundering around in the darkness for what feels like hours. Days, even, and it’s not the first time that this has happened to you. The darkness is so total that you can’t even begin to discern your surroundings. Direction doesn’t exist here. There are surfaces; you’re standing, after all, and sometimes there are walls, but sometimes you’re not standing and there’s no floor. You hate it here. You can’t hear anything. You can’t see anything. You can’t-

 

==-> Wake up.

 

Suddenly, you’re back in your hive. As your sense of touch floods back, a familiar feeling graces every inch of skin on your body: the cloying, solid, gluey wetness of sopor slime. This would be comforting, after all, everyone finds joy in immersing themselves in goo after a long, hard night. But you’re also currently lacking oxygen.

 

You suck in a mouthful of the stuff, delirious from your sudden waking, and you choke. Seeing light, you squirm over to it and shove your head into it. Now you can breathe, having just pushed your head out of your recuperacoon. Slime drips onto the towels prepared beneath your sleeping chamber’s sphincter. The slime is coming from your features, which have formed into the scowl of displeasure that your expression always seems to gravitate towards. The goo slips down over your greasy hair and feline fangs, your tired eyes burdened by dark green circles.

 

You must be really tired. A lot of stuff is refusing to come back to you. Time to get your night started.

 

What is your name?

 

==-> Remember name.

 

Your name is PREEDO BASTET. You are a young male TROLL from the planet ALTERNIA. You are 8 FEET TALL, you weigh 352 POUNDS and you are 7 SOLAR SWEEPS OLD. That seems satisfactory for now. You wriggle out of your bright orange recuperacoon, landing on the floor of your respiteblock, paunch-first, with a thud. Something falls onto the back of your head with a soft clunk: it’s the folded bit of cardboard you customarily put on top of your recuperacoon to seem more catlike. Groaning, you stand up and slap it back where it belongs, before towelling yourself off with the rags lying around your bedroom.

 

You change out of your sleeping clothes. All of your outfits are entirely made from the same items with varying states of disrepair: “fashion” is a niche interest on your planet, and anyway, you’re way too busy (in a sense) to bother with it. Your outfit is a long-sleeved black shirt with your true sign, LERIUS, on it, dark blue jean shorts (all ripped, of course) and green shoes that match your sign (and your blood). Not in your wardrobe is your spiked belt: it lies near your towels, so you can put it on as soon as you wake up if you feel so inclined. You kind of live in a BOMBED-OUT WASTELAND full of TRASH, so no one cares how slimy you are. One item you impeccably keep clean is your HEROIC CAPE, with a brooch inscribed with an ancient symbol of HOPE AND TERROR.

 

You dreamt in the DARK PLACE yesterday. You hate the Dark Place so much: you’ve been having the same dream every day for so long, and when you wake up at night you’re more tired than you were when you went to sleep. God, you feel like some RAW MEAT at the moment, from something freshly killed, warm and steaming, ripped into by your claws, but there’s nothing in the larders at the moment. You have to HUNT.

 

You pride yourself on two things: your SENSE OF RIGHT AND WRONG and your FREAKISH STRENGTH. Somehow, the gene that makes females of your caste into titans of sinew and rage found its way into your cells. You’ve vowed to put your strength to good use as a SECRET WARRIOR OF JUSTICE. You understand that, typically, tealbloods are dispensers of justice, but you haven’t seen it written down anywhere! Even if you did, it likely wouldn’t affect your outlook; YOU CAN’T READ. When you’re not HUNTING FOOD or PROTECTING THE INNOCENT, you’re taking reading lessons from a friend.

 

==-> Equip VIOLENCE MITTENS

 

You use GLOVEKIND ABSTRATUS, and by pondering this fact, your VIOLENCE MITTENS, two iron gauntlets each about as heavy as you, jump from nonexistence onto your hands, fitting like two gloves, which is what they are. They were tailor-made for you by your PSYCHIC FRIENDS and your LUSUS from a hunk of raw iron. A grin splits your face: you can’t go anywhere without your Violence Mittens. You never know when you might need to do a violence.

 

==-> Examine respiteblock.

 

Your respiteblock contains a few posters of LANDSCAPE PHOTOS of GREEN CITIES, artist’s impressions of the mythical MIDNIGHT CITY on the Green Moon, never discovered because of the moon’s thick atmosphere, which also gives the planet its heretical limey hue. You are fascinated by these images: they are GREEN, and you like green. There are several holes in the wall that you made, either to blow off steam or because you were being attacked by the WASTE ZONER GANGS you fight on the reg. They’re the reason you built your hive in an ancient hivestem, despite how painful it was to coerce the carpenter droids into indulging your architectural fancies. There’s a small, square, boring mirror that you use when you think that you’re concussed or bleeding (almost nightly conditions).

 

After slipping on your belt over your generous tum and clipping your cape around your neck, you turn to look into it. Yep, same old Preedo. Same old horns that go straight up and turn into hooks as the colour changes from orange to red. Same old prodigious biceps, triceps and other ‘ceps. Same old always-frown. Same old low, heavy eyebrows. Same old slumped head. Same old tired, tired eyes, full of gold but still dark and dull. Fighting for justice has changed you: it’s hard to fight for something when you live in a place where it never existed before you came along.

 

==-> Bang your gauntlets together.

 

You slam the heavy iron monstrosities together. The indescribable crash they make reminds you of the meaning of the universe. Oh yeah! Now you’re awake! …And judging by the growling from the bottom floor of your hive, so is your lusus. You head through your respiteblock’s door, and step onto a rampart one storey above the ground. You built your hive like a fortress, with a walled courtyard and four towers at the corners, where you sleep, eat, train and roll around with balls of string. It’s windy and dark out, as usual. The whistling, icy wind blows your hair into your eyes. It smells of smoke and decay. Glancing to your right, you see the cavernous interior of this floor of the hivestem, behind the rest of your hive. Glancing to your left, you see a 900-foot drop. The sight always fails to perturb you.

 

You leap over the rampart’s barrier into the courtyard. You manage to land almost silently. The courtyard has almost nothing but some string lights you strung up between the towers, and three benches scattered randomly across the hard ground. To get to your meal block (where you _know_ your lusus is), you open the secret door on the wall, allowing you to enter the first-floor blocks. The door to your meal block is ajar. You can hear the clanging from here. You sigh, and place a hand to your forehead, but you still manage to smile. You step through the door to confront your lusus.

 

**PREEDO: rrHello, Purrseusrr**

 

Clambering on the side of your thermal hull, pawing at your freezer door, is your lusus, a STEADFAST MANYBEAST. Purrseus was the runt of his litter: you can tell because he’s only nine feet long. His large, powerful feline body is covered in elegant silvery-white fur, except for the vast, segmented, bone-white stingerbug tail that arches up over his back and terminates in a wicked, vicious needle-point. Emerging from his back are two white dragon wings. From his leonine head two horns tipped by hooks emerge. His usually-regally impassive face is frozen right now in a sheepish stare.

 

**PREEDO: rrIm sorry, dear custodian, but theres no meat in the hull at the momentrr**

 

It’s no lie. Having enough meat in the hive to feed both you and a 400-pound carnivore for more than a night has always proven to be one of the most difficult challenges in your life, especially because most manybeasts (many manybeasts?) nobly refuse to eat troll meat. Not for want of trying, you think, eying the six other thermal hulls in your meal block. Luckily, the heap of garbage the size of a city you live in is full of feral monsters with skins full of meat.

 

Purrseus still looks at you with his big, sad eyes. Living so far away from prey for most of his life has dulled his killing instinct, you think. He needs you, just like you need him for your own survival.

 

**PREEDO: rrLook, once Im done with my lessons, Ill bring us back some food. Understand?rr**

 

Purrseus doesn’t understand you. He nuzzles your body a little, trying to slink in under your arm, and you choose to indulge him, stowing your VIOLENCE MITTENS and giving him affectionate headpats.

 

==-> Exit hive.

 

You’ve got stuff to do tonight. You exit out into the courtyard and look up. The cool night air brushes gently against you, creating a forbidden aura of false serenity. You brace yourself, squinting up towards the roof of one of your hive’s towers. With a single leap, you’re on top of it. From your vantage point, you can see the ancient metropolitan carcass you inhabit, in full.

 

THE WASTE ZONE. A terrible place filled with bad people. Your eyes scan over the ground obscured by toxic fog and dark, jagged piles of waste, the refuse of the callous civilisation beyond. Ancient, dark skeletons of hivestems and cubistems and bureaublocks struggle for space above the faded landscape, the fossilised bones of what was once a sprawling urban superorganism. But dominating all is a mountainous, gargantuan tower, glowing whiter than ice, whiter than death: the SPIROGRAPH SPIRE. The ancient, inexplicable building is a mile in diameter and ten miles tall, topped with a sphere, in turn emblazoned with a slate-grey spirograph wider than your whole hive. The sphere with the symbol in the middle faces you, looking like an accusatory glare sometimes, but like the misted eye of a corpse most often.

 

It is here that all of the degenerate elements of Alternia congregate. THE WORST OF THE WORST. It is your destiny to cleanse this place of evil. You are the only hope this place has.

 

You jump over the edge of that great drop. Wind roars into your face. You have a friend below. You are not afraid.

 

==-> Be the friend.

 

You snap the heavy book in your hands shut. You are now Preedo’s friend. Yawning and stretching, scratching at skinny ribs beneath your baggy shirt, you get up out of the swivel chair in your candle-lit respiteblock, next to the many stacks of books that don’t fit on your shelves.

 

You love books and you love reading, and you wouldn’t give them up for anything on Alternia. But, reading a good book takes a lot out of you. You have to collect your thoughts.

 

==-> Collect thoughts.

 

Your name is EXANDA DEMICS. You are 5-AND-A-HALF SWEEPS OLD, and you’re lucky to have lived that long: you were hatched in the Waste Zone and you have all of the offensive capabilities of a toothpick. Because of your voracious hoarding of BOOKS, TOMES AND DOCUMENTS, you’ve become something of an INFORMATION BROKER around these parts. You are an ALMOST COMPULSIVE READER, and you enjoy ALL GENRES AND SUBJECTS. You are currently reading a book on RED ROMANCE because you are MADLY IN LOVE.

 

Getting up, you look down at yourself as you put the heavy book full of enlightening tips down on a nearby pile. Your t-shirt bears the bronze-coloured sign TAURPIO. You’re wearing a deep brown belt with a rusty buckle, black pants and brown shoes with your socks coming very far out of the top, even though you rolled them down. You readjust your big, old-fashioned glasses on your nose before standing up. They’re all you can afford: you spend most of your money on books.

 

You decide to clean your glasses, and for a minute you see yourself reflected in them. Curly hair cut short just above the eyes, huge, square horns with short, orange offshoots, and a fangy smile. Then, you’re wiping your glasses on your shirt, and all you can see are vague blobs of gold where the flames of your candles are. The world turns into an amber-coloured haze of splotches and swishes for a few seconds, before your spectacles are back on your nose. You made all of these candles yourself.

 

You glance around at your respiteblock. On the wall, you have a poster of your favourite book series of all time: HARREE POTTER. Though the books are not spoken of often these days (mostly because of their dangerous themes of caste subversion), the tale of Harree the brave psionic gradually becoming powerful enough to topple a seadweller tyrant… will always hold a special block in your bloodpusher.

 

You’re just thinking of crossing the room to head into your rumpusblock when a deafening crash, followed by the sound of cracking plaster, resounds through your hive. You groan.

 

**EXANDA: preedo…**

 

==-> Exanda: Investigate.

 

You already know what you’re going to find. You’re going to find your sizable student having just smashed through the roof of your hive. You wish he would JUST USE THE DOOR.

 

You step out onto the second-floor landing. You look down at your rumpusblock and you see your beanbug chairs covered in dust, your coffee mealsupport broken in half, and your sizable student, Preedo Bastet, saluting you from across the room. You have no idea how he survives crashing through your roof every time he comes to your house. You imagine he gets out of injury by landing flab-first. You’ve had to resort to DUCT-TAPING your roof back together after every lesson.

 

**EXANDA: *s^gh*  
EXANDA: good even^ng, preedo. are you ready to learn?**

**PREEDO: rrExanda! I am very ready!rr**

**EXANDA: okay, ^’ll br^ng out the book. hang t^ght, ^’ve, uh, got noth^ng ^n the cupboards.**

**PREEDO: rrI can relaterr**

 

==-> Exanda: Get book.

 

You head into your room and dig out the book that Preedo is reading with you. He’s a very fast learner, even though he stumbles over words sometimes. However, you have a CLOWN FRIEND who is very… particular about that sort of thing, so you’re doing your best to help Preedo avoid his wrath.

 

==-> Exanda: Go downstairs.

 

You go back downstairs to find Preedo, surprisingly, duct taping the roof back together and grinning at you. He’s reached it by stacking the two halves of your busted coffee mealsupport on top of each other. They both are creaking in protest. He pushes the last chunk of plaster in place and leaps down, shaking the whole hive just a little on impact.

 

**EXANDA: wow, thanks! That’s a b^g help!**

**PREEDO: rrI know. Thats why Ill be leaving through your doorrr**

**EXANDA: you ARE learn^ng!!**

This is an excellent development. Your hive is built into the side of an ancient hivestem, like the actual hives in this building would have been. Your front door leads into the dark, labyrinthine interior of the crumbling structure. Preedo usually hates going out that way because of all the dust, preferring to leave through the holes he makes in your roof. Looks like he’s chosen to change! Very good!

 

==-> Exanda: Teach Preedo.

 

You start to teach Preedo. The book you’re both reading is a standard easy-reader, SNOWOW VWITHE IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL TROLL IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM SO THE EMPRESS GETS JEALOUS OF HER ETC. ETC., otherwise known as SNOWOW VWITHE AND THE SEVEN MIDGET LUSII, a classic as far as you’re concerned. You’re planning on getting him to read PUPA PAN after this. You think he’ll enjoy all of the bits about flying. Preedo and you press together on the couch and hunch over the book. Preedo picks up right where he left off last time without a hitch.

 

**PREEDO: rr”…and so, the Empress called to her the finest thesha…tresha…-“rr**

**EXANDA: threshecut^oners.**

**PREEDO: rrOh, okay. Thats a really hard wordrr**

**PREEDO: rr“Threshecutioners”rr**

**EXANDA: very good!**

**PREEDO: rr”the finest Threshecutioners in the star system, and she said to them, ‘Find Snowow Vwithe, cut out her blood…pusher… and put it in this fwessel’“rr**

**EXANDA: no preedo, that’s “vessel”**

**PREEDO: rrOkay, I got confusedrr**

**PREEDO: rrBut hang on, why does the Empress want to cull Snowow Vwithe in the first place?rr**

**EXANDA: because she’s too beaut^ful. ^t hurts her ego.**

**PREEDO: rrIs that it? Last I checked, being beautiful wasn’t a bad mutationrr**

**EXANDA: well, she ^s the empress. ^t’s well w^th^n her r^ghts to have someone culled for arb^trary reasons.**

**PREEDO: rrThis seems like a wasteful way of doing it. Does the Empress only want to eat her bloodpusher? Shes way too pickyrr**

**EXANDA: ^ don’t th^nk the empress wants to eat ^t at all. she probably just wants the bloodpusher as proof that the threshecut^oner k^lled snowow vw^the.**

**PREEDO: rrFair enoughrr**

This goes on for about an hour, with Preedo engaging you in various conversations throughout before going back to reading, his brow scrunched in concentration as he attacked the task in front of him. You’ve been aware of Preedo for most of your life; four sweeps, in fact. It’s only in this last sweep or so that you’ve made his acquaintance and introduced him to your three other friends.

 

Well, two other friends and one _more_ -than-friend.

 

You started giving him lessons shortly after that, prompted by when you went up to his hive and, in between mouthfuls of raw meat, he revealed that he couldn’t read. Makes sense, though: there’s no schoolfeeding access in the Waste Zone. You had to teach yourself. You’re nearly ready to wean him off of easy-readers, you think: he learns _fast_.

 

All too soon, your reading time is nearly up.

 

**PREEDO: rr”…now, the midget lusii were excited to come home after a long day at work in the mines… they had no i… (idea?)”rr**

**EXANDA: (yes)**

**PREEDO: rr”they had no idea who they would find waiting for them at their hive”rr**

**EXANDA: okay preedo! you d^d very well today!**

**PREEDO: rrReally?rr**

**EXANDA: of course! we’ll have to work on your read^ng comprehens^on. ^’ll pr^nt you some homework and then ^’ll let you go.**

**PREEDO: rrYeah… Id better go after thatrr**

**PREEDO: rrI have stuff to dorr**

**EXANDA: mm hmm.**

 

You get off the couch, heading for the stairs. Outside your door, you stop, and look back at Preedo. He’s picked up the book again, mouthing the words, eyes moving frantically over each page. You can see him struggling and stumbling in some places, but he keeps going.

 

**EXANDA: hey, preedo, do you wanna…**

 

Hoo boy, this is hard. He keeps his eyes on the book.

 

**PREEDO: rrYeah?rr**

**EXANDA: do you wanna keep the book?**

 

He looks up in shock.

**PREEDO: rrI can?rr**

**EXANDA: uh, yeah! read some more w^thout me ^f you want!**

**EXANDA: ^f you have ^ssues you can just text me and we’ll address ‘em, uh, next lesson!**

**PREEDO: rrWait, whats that word?rr**

**EXANDA: huh?**

**PREEDO: rr”Ad-ress?”rr**

**EXANDA: oh, that’s, uh… when you address a problem, that means you’re f^x^ng ^t!**

**PREEDO: rrHmmm… a good wordrr**

**EXANDA: ^’m… glad that you th^nk that way!**

**PREEDO: rrOkay… I guess Ill see you soon, Exandarr**

**EXANDA: alr^ght. bye!**

He opens the door and, with a faint smile and a wave, disappears into darkness.

 

You go into your room. Your TABLET is resting on your cluttered desk (the desk is, of course, cluttered with books). You think about emailing Preedo the homework you had prepared for him, before a familiar noise interrupts your thoughts: a dull fwapping noise. Instantly, you’re out the door and down the stairs. Your sweet sweet precious sweet lusus is back!!!!!

 

Having just entered through the softly fwapping flap on the wall, DAD sits on the floor, cleaning his long, thin snout with his little paws. His back is adorned with large amounts of spines, on which he has impaled this week’s sustenance and salvage. You’ve trained him well. Smiling, you bend down to scoop him up with two hands, taking care to avoid the spikes: they’re SHARP AS HELL and HARDER THAN STEEL, and you would need industrial-grade training to safely handle just one. Having a CURIOUS BRISTLEBEAST for a lusus might sound like a burden to the unfamiliar, but Dad could handle himself.

 

Delicately, you extract the various items that Dad has collected. There’s some old fruit, vegetables and mushrooms from god-knows-where, and also a chunk of what looks like meat. You smile down at Dad, giving him scritches.

 

**EXANDA: awwww, d^d you get all th^s for me?? you’re really the best lusus ever! who’s the best lusus? ^t’s you! ^t’s always youuuu!!**

 

By this time, you’ve started ruffling the fur on his head and tummy, and his eyes have closed in bliss. But once you let up (wary of the spines), he focuses and jumps down from your hand.

 

**EXANDA: hey, where are you go^ng?**

 

He doesn’t respond (duh) and ducks out of the flap, leaving the hive.

 

After about 15 minutes, he’s back. You jump off of the couch and walk over to him. He’s very encumbered, you can see, by something he’s got on his back. It’s a… solid stone slab? What? Quickly, you go over to him and pull it off his spines.

 

You look at the slab and flip it over. Then you flip it over again. One side is blank, but the other is covered in mysterious designs. But wait… you can read this! This is Ancient Alternian!

 

So, you read, and after you’re finished, a singular thought coalesces in your stunned brain.

 

**EXANDA: oh my god, ^ need to call drekul.**


	2. Mischievous Faces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter one this time. Felt prudent.

==-> Be Future Preedo.

 

You are now Preedo, four hours in the future. You have had an amazing night and have attained a sizable catch. The creature (some kind of feral barkbeast) went down very quickly after a few punches to its snarling, fanged head. With this much meat, you and your lusus could eat well for nights! But there is one problem with successful hunts: you’ve still got to ferry them up the tower you live in. Purrseus is no help; he just doesn’t know what to do with your kills besides eat them.

 

The Waste Zone reminds you of a forest, sometimes. Right now, you’re standing in the dark forest floor. The buildings, so old and decayed they might as well be trees, loom menacingly above you, blocking out the light of the three moons. Toxic miasma swirls at your feet and the air is chocked with dust. Scraps of garbage, piled up and covering the ground like fallen leaves, swallows some of the smaller buildings, the remnants of vehicles, and, occasionally, the biomechanical carcass of an Imperial Drone. The place is entirely silent and lifeless, mostly. But in some places, foul, depraved scavengers and hideous, abandoned monsters beset the obsidian nights and blistering days with screams and howls (sometimes, not even their own).

 

You have learned to take any disturbance of the silence as a prelude to attack. Any sound not from you could indicate an encroaching threat. Which is why your body has tensed and your eyes have widened: you hear something. Rustling, from behind you. Taking care not to make any sudden movements, you shift your kill so that it’s in front of you. The rustling grows more intense. Slowly, you turn, ready to face down the source of the noise. Your gaze falls upon a pile of trash, which is shifting around like something within is ready to burst out. But what finally does emerge is nothing resembling a monster.

 

Skipping down the side of the pile of garbage is a little troll, about the same height as Exanda. They’re wearing a filthy sweater that was probably once white, displaying the gold sign of GEMSCI, a red ribbon skirt and black shoes. Their head is almost entirely obscured by shaggy hair, so all that can be seen is an impish grin. Four horns emerge from their head, in two pairs, where the yellow end of each horn curls away from its partner’s. You relax immediately: standing in front of you is the most dangerous person in the world, and luckily, they’re on your side.

 

**PREEDO: rrParchi! Its been too long!rr**

**PARCHI: #I’M AFRAID I CAN’T SAY T#E SAME, PREEDS#**

 

PARCHI VALRUZ sits down on the pile, relaxing, poised as if on the most luxurious throne. Their grin never fades, and occasionally they flick their forked tongue over their fangs. You remember something important.

 

**PREEDO: rrSo, uh, is it “they” or “she” today?rr**

**PARCHI: #S#E, BUT T#EY WORKS TOO. SAME AS ALWAYS#**

 

Her weird, buzzing, downright eldritch lisp makes some of her words hard to understand, but you yourself have a baritone like the subsonic roar of a solar flare, so you’re not one to talk about intelligibility. You also don’t know what that word means. But you think you understand what she said.

 

**PREEDO: rrSo, why have you come to see me?rr**

**PARCHI: #O#, PREEDO? I NEED A REASON TO COME SEE MY LARGEST FRIEND?#**

**PARCHI: #ISN’T JUST WANTING TO C#AT WIT# YOU ENOUG# OF A REASON?#**

**PREEDO: rrYou absolutely never come to see me if you dont want somethingrr**

**PARCHI: #DREKKIE BOY WANTS US ALL TO MEET UP#**

**PARCHI: #SOMET#ING XAN-XAN DUG UP #AS PUT #IM IN A SPIN#**

Oh, NO.

 

**PREEDO: rrIS EXANDA OKAY?!?rr**

**PARCHI: #(O# S#IT)#**

**PARCHI: #YEA#??#**

 

PHEW! You were worried for a second. It takes a lot to get _that guy_ interested: he’s really drawn into himself lately. Still… you probably shouldn’t’ve shouted. The Waste Zone’s slumber is disturbed only by the unwise.

 

**PREEDO: rrPlease, Parchi, come up to my hiverr**

**PREEDO: rrIts not safe down hererr**

**PARCHI: #YOU DON’T NEED TO MANSPLAIN THE WASTE ZONE TO ME, PREEDO, I LIVE #ERE TOO#**

 

She grins even wider. You don’t know if Parchi feels anything: that damn grin is always stuck to her face wherever she goes. She might be a little crazy, you don’t know.

 

**PARCHI: #ANYWAY, I CAN’T#**

**PARCHI: #I’VE GOT TO JET #OME STAT, OR MY LUSUS WILL GET#**

**PARCHI: #...TEMPERAMENTAL#**

**PARCHI: #I’LL KEEP IN TOUC# WIT# MY TABLET#**

**PREEDO: rrOh, okayrr**

**PARCHI: ##EY, C#EER UP, LONG STACK!#**

**PREEDO: rrIm fine! Its just… I need to carry this mountain of dead thingrr**

**PREEDO: rrBack to my hiverr**

**PREEDO: rrWay the heck up thererr**

You point. You think Parchi looks up, but you legitimately have no idea how she sees anything at all. Now that her head’s tilted, though, you can see two soft, glowing lights beneath her scraggly bangs: the green and gold lights of her left and right eyes, that always burn with the power she keeps locked inside her head (or just doesn’t know how to use).

 

**PARCHI: #YOU WANT ME TO TOUC# T#AT GRODY T#ING?#**

**PARCHI: #FUCKING EW. I MIG#T GET BOY GERMS#**

**PARCHI: #BUT SINCE I’M GENERALLY AN EXCELLENT PERSON-#**

**PREEDO: rrI wish I lived in that universerr**

**PARCHI: #-I’M GOING TO #ELP YOU OUT! *CRACKS KNUCKLES*#**

She cracks her knuckles and green and gold sparks fly off. Oh, no. She stretches and lightning arcs off of her horns. OH, SHIT. Then she starts screaming. She always screams when she uses her psionics, even though your doctor friend assures you that using powers accessible to her level of development shouldn’t even sting. You think she does it as part of her trash imp aesthetic.

 

You’re lifting off of the ground before you can apply any more thought to the power that is allowing you to lift off of the ground. She’s flying, too, and so is the corpse. And, then, you’re ascending, in a cloud of tangential sparks and roiling air that stinks of ozone, accompanied by a screaming idiot probably powerful enough to disintegrate a mountain if she thought its absence would improve her view. You might consider flying with Parchi a rare treat if… you know what, you do. As annoying as Parchi is, she’s still deserving of your friendship.

 

After about twenty seconds, Parchi’s airlifted you, your catch and herself onto your fortress’ front lawnring.

 

**PREEDO: rrHeh… Im not sure Im used to flying…rr**

**PREEDO: rrThanks anyway, Parchi!rr**

**PARCHI: #*#URK*#**

You whip sharply around to look at her: that didn’t sound good

 

**PREEDO: rrYou okay?rr**

**PARCHI: #I’M FINE!#**

 

She gives you thumbs-up. She looks haggard. Her smile is weak.

 

**PREEDO: rrShit, I shouldntve let you use your powers for me!rr**

**PREEDO: rrAnswer truthfully; are you alright?rr**

**PARCHI: #I’LL LITERALLY BE FINE IN FIVE SECONDS, LONG STACK#**

**PARCHI: #GIVE ME A SECOND.** **ACTUALLY, FIVE SECONDS, YOU KNOW, LIKE I JUST SAID#**

 

…Okay. She really shouldn’t stress herself, you think. You’ve seen what psionics out of control can do to a person. But, luckily, Parchi straightens out her body after a little bit of time spent huffing and panting.

**PREEDO: rrAbsolutely sure you dont want to stay here for a bit longer?rr**

**PREEDO: rrWe can chill and eat raw meat!rr**

**PARCHI: #I CAN’T STAY. I ALREADY SAID W#Y#**

**PREEDO: rrYeah…rr**

Parchi… doesn’t like to talk about her lusus. Her smile is obviously forced for a few seconds before she brightens up.

 

**PARCHI: #TALK TO YOU LATER, LONG STACK#**

**PREEDO: rrHeh. Goodbyerr**

 

She skips off into the darkness. You watch her go, slipping under some debris and vanishing into the hivestem’s corridors. You walk back to your hive, dragging the corpse behind you. The darkness of the Waste Zone is cloying tonight: you hope she gets home safely.

 

You’re back at your hive, but something doesn’t seem right. The air seems… stiller, if that makes sense. Like some energy was here, but now it’s… diminished? For no particular reason, you look up into the deep darkness. Instantly, you fly into a combat stance, a grimace forming on your face; there’s someone on the roof of your hive. Someone really tall, in a cloak, with two huge horns jutting out from their head.

 

**PREEDO: rrWHO ARE YOU?! WHATRE YOU DOIN HERE??!rr**

**??????: Preedo Bastet.**

**??????: It would be inaccurate to say that I’ve been waiting for you.**

**??????: I don’t wait. I’m always exactly when I need to be.**

**??????: I’m already then.**

 

The voice is cool, feminine, and more monotone than an Imperial Drone. It commands just as much dread and awe as one, though. You don’t feel in danger, per se, but you’re far from at ease.

 

**PREEDO: rrAre you an adult?rr**

**??????: Yes.**

**PREEDO: rrSo who are you? How are you allowed on the planet?rr**

**??????: You would not understand if I answered those questions.**

She turns away from you. Her gaze is directed towards the Spirograph Spire.

 

**??????: What is your understanding of destiny, Preedo?**

**PREEDO: rrIm destined to be a herorr**

**PREEDO: rrYoure destined to get the heck off my propertyrr**

**PREEDO: rrMy friends are destined to be cool until they all dierr**

**??????: …**

**??????: If it was destiny that you would duel your best friend, would you go through with it?  
**

**??????: If it was your destiny for you to die at his hands, would you accept it?  
**

**??????: Would you make it so? Will it so?**

**PREEDO: rrUm… no?rr**

**??????: We get no choice in these matters, Preedo. All things that will happen to us are ordained before our births.**

**??????: Every joy, every sorrow, every tender kiss and every biting insult. Every stroke of pain and every rush of pleasure.**

**??????: Our lives are truly cursed, Preedo.**

**??????: We are both cursed with relevancy to a mad god’s fairy tale. We are both nothing, but frenzied dreams wrapped in wisps of matter.**

**PREEDO: rrWell, Im going to keep existingrr**

**PREEDO: rrIf Im nothing, then Ill be something one dayrr**

**PREEDO: rrIll make this world into one where Im somethingrr**

 

You feel a strange burst of sympathy for this mysterious woman.

 

**PREEDO: rrI can make you something, too?rr**

**??????: My fate lies elsewhere.**

**??????: But…**

**PREEDO: rrWhat?rr**

**??????: …thank you.**

**??????: Check your tablet when you get in the hive.**

**??????: We will meet again twice in your lifespan. I will see you in 105 hours.**

**PREEDO: rrWait, what?!rr**

 

But just like that, she leaps off of your hive’s roof. You make after her, but you turn the corner, and she’s gone. Nothing betrays any sign of her: it’s like she vanished. Whatever, you have a friend who can move stuff with her mind. This was still very unusual, though. Your eyes drift to the Spirograph Spire, and you let your mind wander. In the charged air, in the wake of the melancholy creature, you ponder her words.

 

If destiny is not yours to control, perhaps you must wrest control from the one who does hold it. But… that’s impossible, right?

 

==-> Preedo: Head inside.

 

You enter your hive, and you hear two familiar noises, that restore your sense of comfort at having arrived home. Your tablet’s notification beeps, and Purrseus making stressed-out growling noises. Hopefully, he’s not trying to eat it again. He tries to eat stuff that makes noise, doesn’t move, and is not you. You head back outside and drag in the corpse, just to (hopefully) calm him down. Once he smells meat, he’ll be on it in a flash, and you’ll be able to grab your tablet. Sure enough, he comes bounding down the stairs and rips off a chunk of now pretty cold meat.

 

You head up to your respiteblock and grab your tablet from under a pile of towels. You open up your “messages” application and you’re greeted by a busily flashing contact button. It’s purple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time, we'll see Parchi's commute home, and boy, it'll be rough.


	3. On the Way Home

==-> Be Parchi.

 

You are now PARCHI VALRUZ, you lucky bastard. It’s so great to be you that sometimes you forget how terrible it is to be you. That probably doesn’t make sense, but a lot of the things you think don’t make sense. Right now, you’ve just been assisting that big lump Preedo and you’ve got to head home and get there fast. Flitting through the darkness of one of the Waste Zone’s ruins is very boring, so you find time to reflect on your interests.

 

You are a lover, first and foremost, of FASHION, which serves the purpose of making most of your neighbours terrified of you, because BRIGHT COLOURS obviously mean that you’re INEDIBLY POISONOUS. Plus, wearing clothes that you like makes you feel powerful. You enjoy making JUNK SCULPTURES with your psionics, which feeds your interest in FORAGING and DUMPSTER DIVING (finding cool garbage is really not hard in the Waste Zone, though).

 

You finally reach the ground by sliding down a collapsed concrete beam onto the cold ground. The blistering sun has still not risen, so you’ve still got time, but not as much as you’d like. You take off across what was once a road with haste, hopping up a pile of garbage to reach the roof of a building across the road from Preedo’s. You scan your surroundings, and they come up clear. Not clear enough, though: fog obscures your vision, and the miasma of the Waste Zone is very dense, so you can’t affect it with your telekinesis unless you’re standing right next to it. This is one of the few flaws with your powers, though, another being that most of the troglodytes who dwell here want to use you as a living battery for their microwaves or whatever. You distrust microwaves. Too much beeping. What are they saying.

 

==-> Parchi: Focus.

 

Putting aside all microwave-related thoughts for now, you sprint off across the rooftop, aiming for the edge. You tense up. The power inside your mind, looped and tangled like a ball of yarn, begins to unfurl. Threads of green and yellow lightning arc off of your body. Just as you reach the edge, the sound of thunder roars in your ears, and in a split-second you’ve cleared the gap. Your feet aren’t even touching the ground, it’s like you’re running on air, and you’re only getting faster. The storm inside your mind is growing stronger and fiercer, the lightning grows in intensity, you feel brave, you feel strong, you feel-

 

A sharp SNAP in the centre of your forehead. You gasp with pain, clapping your hands to your head as balance leaves you. It’s like your skull has split open and your power rushes back into your head through the wound, before it snaps shut like a trap. You’re two storeys above the ground, and all of your power’s been used up.

 

**PARCHI: #WOA# WOA# WOA# ARRRRG#####!!#**

 

You, luckily, slam into a pile of refuse, bouncing a little before settling, lying upside-down with some unidentifiable juice trickling into your hair. The pain blooming across your body makes this seem bad, but it could’ve gone a lot worse: garbage is much more forgiving of clumsiness than concrete. Groaning, you flip back over, planting your feet so you can stand up, but just as you do, you feel a familiar, horrible sensation: your mouth starts to feel like it’s filling with saliva. Your stomach rolls.

 

You turn around, hack, and something shoots out of your mouth. It’s a bright gold puddle of goo. All blood, mucus and acid. Shit. Fucking shit fuck on a fucking shit. This happens sometimes: your body isn’t adjusted to your powers yet, despite their rapid development. You chalk it up to the stress in your environment making your powers grow faster than your organs can handle. It sucks more than anything, you think, wiping your bloody mouth with your sleeve. Actually, on second thought, there are a few things worse than literally being too cool that you can’t even handle you. Still, you’d rather not have to vomit blood every time you let go and push your limits.

 

You survey your surroundings. Surprisingly, this area is actually pretty unfamiliar: both ends of the street are walled off. You remember going past this place regularly but never bothering to fly over the walls. You realise your folly and your surprising good fortune really quick, though: a few dumps landed here recently! The Waste Zone is sometimes beset by automated cargo ships from more civilised parts of Alternia, which fire on anything below and then send down droids to dump their load of garbage. As far as you can tell, the ships have been coming for thousands of sweeps.

 

You quickly begin to scrounge around in the fresh garbage. Oh, there’s a good haul here! Like a blessing from God, rotten fruit, the preferred food of your lusus, has ended up in your hands! Quickly, you shove it into your sweater’s already somewhat full pockets: MOM’ll be eating well tonight!

 

But your hopes of the night remaining fruitful and the future looking up are dashed when you hear something. Immediately, your body freezes. There’s no mistaking it: the sound of multiple pairs of footsteps are closing in on you, slowly, deliberately.

 

Reluctantly, you turn around, hands still awkwardly stuffed into your pockets. Standing over you are three troll boys, typical Waste Zoners. They’re bigger than you, and, framed by the three moons, they look like sinister, monstrous figures clothed in angular shadows. The gang facing you down is made up of two burly, thuggish bronzebloods and one wicked cerulean, old enough that the thin carapace above his skin is splotchy and noticeably darker than yours. Even though you’re a caste above two of these clowns, it won’t help: caste just doesn’t matter here, it’s raw strength of body and will that determines who leads who.

 

**IXODIA: W3ll, w3ll, w3ll, boys, look @t wh@t w3’v3 just found!**

**ANTALO: hAhahah! i rEally dOn’t kNow wHat iM sEeing!**

**DEBEES: i thhink i do guys!**

**DEBEES: weve got ourselves a little lost psionic!**

**IXODIA: Sure s33ms like it, right guys?**

**IXODIA: H3y th3r3, littl3 girl. Nice light show. Th3r3 @r3 @ lot of things w3 could us3 thos3 pow3rs for.**

**PARCHI: #I’M NOT A GIRL, NOOKEATER#**

 

You feel really scared, but you’ve got to hold your ground: any sign of weakness, and these goons will pounce. You try to call your powers, but they’re refusing to come.

 

**DEBEES: aww man! i was really looking forward to thhe stuff thhat you could do for us!**

**DEBEES: our microwaves been conking out pretty often for the past perigee. we need someone to lend a hand.**

**ANTALO: oR rAther, a hEad! hAhah!**

**IXODIA: Y3@h… I took you for @ consci3ntious young… thing.**

**IXODIA: You wouldn’t w@nt to dis@ppoint m3, right? I h@d… such high 3xp3ct@tions.**

 

The freak gets closer. His minions flex a little, curling their fingers, getting ready to grab you. You still stand, staring up at him, trembling… only a little. He doesn’t like that.

 

**IXODIA: I fucking MURD3R th3 people who dis@ppoint m3, you dumb littl3 wriggl3r-looking fuck.**

**ANTALO: wE hElp!**

**DEBEES: dont be a dumbass. ixodias not thhe type to cross if you like hhaving arms.**

**DEBEES: we dont even need you to hhave arms. taking thhem off wont make you a worse battery.**

**PARCHI: #MY ARMS ARE FULL OF BLOOD. I NEED BLOOD TO DO T#E SPARKLE-SPARKLE MAGIC. USE YOUR FUCKING T#INKPAN#**

**PARCHI: #NOW, YOU’RE GOING TO LET ME GO #OME#**

**PARCHI: #OR I’LL TEAR OUT YOUR RIBS AND INTRODUCE T#EM TO YOUR C#AGRIN TUNNELS#**

**IXODIA: Oh y3@h?!**

 

He throws his body back and pounds his chest.

 

**IXODIA: Bring it!**

 

==-> Parchi: Escape.

 

You run in the opposite direction. Scampering up a pile of garbage, desperately scrabbling for steady handholds and footholds, you can hear the jerk bark something at his minions. They’re coming after you. You clamber over the pile and are faced by a rotting fence. Hearing the thugs climbing after you, you kick at the fence with all your might, chipping the planks just a little bit. You kick and kick, frantically looking over your shoulder as the whole pile seems to shake. You create a hole that can be crawled through with one final kick. The goons reach the top of the pile just as you wriggle through your DIY escape tunnel.

 

There’s no time to waste: you’re back on your feet in a second and after that you’re off running. You’ve emerged in an area obviously designed for a generator, though that tech had been looted long ago. There’s still a ladder leading up to a fire escape. If you can get into a building, you’ll be able to lose the thugs. You’re breathing fast. The sound of splintering wood fills your ears. They’re back on your tail.

 

You crouch, preparing to jump, gazing up at the ladder, just out of your reach. And then, you leap, stretching out your fingers, ready to grasp-

 

You hit the ground. Too short. You try again. Too short. They’re getting closer. You can hear them _right behind you_. You crouch once more, brace yourself once more, leap once more, and then…

 

Two pairs of meaty hands grab you in mid-air. _Holy shit_. You just managed to grasp the ladder when they caught up to you.

 

**PARCHI: #GERROFF GERROFF GERROFF!!!#**

**DEBEES: or whhat, you little punk?**

**DEBEES: thheres nothhing you can do.**

**ANTALO: cOme qUietly nOw…**

**DEBEES: its thhe only correct thhing to do, since youve caused us so muchh trouble…**

**PARCHI: #O# GOD O# GOD O# GOD O# GOD#**

**PARCHI: #LEAVE ME ALONE LEAVE ME ALONE LEAVE ME ALONE#**

 

You tend to fall apart a little when the going gets tough.

 

==-> Parchi: Introduce their ribs to their chagrin tunnels

 

You can’t focus! There’s no way! Oh God, they’ve got you! They’ve got you they’ve got you holy shit holy shit! You can see their horrible leers as they struggle to yank you off the ladder holy shit what the fuck holy shit-

 

**ANTALO: hEave!**

 

There’s a sharp jolt and your arms hurt. They’re pulling you off holy shit you’re holding on but there’s no way-

 

==-> Parchi: Don’t focus.

 

What the fuck does that mean?

 

==-> Parchi: Hold on.

 

**ANTALO: hEy, wait, whats-**

**DEBEES: hholy FUCK-**

 

There’s a heavy thump, a familiar screech, followed by a sound like a choir of a million angry electrical arcs. Immediately, you feel the hands of the thugs loosen their grip on you. You think you can faintly hear them screaming. You cling onto the ladder for dear life, eyes clenched tightly shut. This is awful. This is horrible. You know what’s happening: your lusus has come for you.

 

After just a few seconds, all the noise has stopped. Only you and your lusus are breathing.

 

==-> Parchi: Fall.

 

You uncoil from around the ladder and drop gracelessly to the ground, which you immediately regret: the ground is swamped with blood, and the sharp, metallic stench fills your nose, making you queasy. Dread grows in the pit of your stomach, in the absence of the imminent danger. You look up, and the small area you’re standing in is drenched in the blood of the thugs. Standing opposite to you is your lusus. On either side of you are the dead thugs: their heads have exploded.

 

Mom stands, hunched and obviously angry. She’s a CEREBRAL ROTLURKER, one of the rarest lusii, and one of the few with psionic powers. She has two segmented legs and two long, stick-insect like arms. Her round, beetle-like shell leads directly into her square head. From her head, four curving antennae emerge. You notice, with fear turning to resignation, that her fanged jaw is unhinged, and she’s glaring at you, mouth gaping like she’s about to start screaming. Her four blank white eyes convey nothing.

 

You stand and walk over to her, your shoes squelching morbidly in the lifeblood infused earth. Looking to your right, you can see that Mom killed their cerulean-blooded leader as he approached his minions. She must have dropped in from the roof of the building opposite to the ladder and attacked with her psionics. Not out of kindness, though. She never does anything out of kindness.

 

She’s looking at you expectantly. _What do you say, Parchi?_

 

**PARCHI: #t#anks, mom…#**

 

She bounds over to you, and looms. Her nostrils flare as she takes in deep sniffs. At once, you reach into your pockets and hold out some food. She bends down and eats it out of your hand. Once she’s done, she takes another breath and scowls. She butts your hand roughly. Hastily, you reach in again and take out more food. She eats it, but the scowl doesn’t leave her face.

 

**PARCHI: #t#a-t#hat’s all I #ave…#**

 

She doesn’t look convinced. She grabs your hand and places it on her shell. Recognising the gesture, you clamber up her smooth back and hold on around her neck. Once you’re secured, she falls onto all fours and begins to gallop, with you bouncing up and down on her shell.

 

You can tell that Mom’s not happy with you. You’ll probably have to give her more of the food you found. You don’t feel like getting hit. Or eaten.

 

After a really rough ride (during which you had to hold on tight as Mom crawled up and down a few buildings) you arrive at your hive. Out of all of the people you know, your hive is the most resembling of its namesake; the ancient mounds of dirt that the first Mother Grubs created and tunnelled beneath to protect their progeny. Substitute “dirt” with “trash” and you’d have a pretty accurate description of the place. Beneath this pile of garbage, Mom has tunnelled deep into the earth, hardening the walls with her SALIVA in certain places. It’s not much, and it’s certainly not a home (home is where the bloodpusher lairs, after all), but there’s a significantly lower chance of being eaten while you’re inside.

 

Mom throws you off of her back and scampers into the hive without looking back. Groaning, you stand up, feeling the bruises on your sides with your claw and wincing.

 

==-> Parchi: Enter hive.

 

You’re pretty thoroughly miserable, but you can’t afford to stay out: the sun will rise very soon, and you’ve got to sleep. You haven’t got a recuperacoon, but Mom usually just wraps you tightly in a cocoon so that your APPALLING NIGHT TERRORS don’t cause you to bash her head in in your sleep. Lately though, your night terrors have given you the slip. Not that the dreams of a totally dark room are especially pleasant, but you’ll take them over the kaleidoscopes of gore you’ve been visiting in your sleep up until recently.

 

==-> Parchi: Enter respiteblock.

 

It’s not much, but this is probably the nicest place in your hive. Aside from the mat of old paper that you curl up on when you go to sleep, there are a few junk sculptures and old clothes arranged around the room. You step through the door and immediately feel a sharp burst of emotion in your chest. You curl into a ball on the floor and sob hard. God, tonight has been awful. After a while, you feel a little better, but you really just want to stay curled up. You’re feeling too tired right now to even really feel miserable.

 

From across the room, your TABLET pings.

 

==-> Parchi: Pick up tablet.

 

You pick up your tablet, look at the screen, close your eyes, and sigh. It’s nearly out of battery. Focussing, you try to channel a spark of your power. The ball of thread inside your mind unravels a little. The battery icon turns from red to green. Success! Now you can look at your messages.

 

You’ve gotten a message from a certain friend. His contact icon is flashing purple. You groan inwardly, but a faint smirk reappears on your face. This’ll be a welcome break.

 

==-> Parchi: Answer message.

Woah now! First, you’ve got to read it.

 

It’s nothing much. Your purpleblood friend, in the most grandiose, theatric and self-fellating manner possible, is inviting you over to his giant creepy hive in the next district. He’s finally properly arranged a meeting about the thing Exanda supposedly found. He’s been really secretive about the whole thing. You figure it’s part of his borderline fetish for dramatization: he needs to make a big show of revealing the thing that will supposedly change our lives and shit. Of course, he makes a big show of taking his dinner out of the microwave, so it’s not surprising.

 

You can’t leave for his hive right now: the sun will be up in about an hour. You could never make it before being burnt up, even though you know the way. You’ll just have to try to sleep. Sighing, you curl up on a softer bit of floor, before thinking better of your situation and taking off your sweater, folding it underneath your head and laying back down. It’s colder in just your singlet, but it’ll be easier to drift off this way.

 

You welcome sleep. The Dark Place is far more pleasant than the real world.


	4. Gathering

The blistering Alternian sun has risen, and the world glistens with white light and an omnipresent heat haze. Far away from the Waste Zone, across light sand dunes and forests of tall purple trees, is the metropolis of Slaughter City. Surrounding the safely sleeping city is a ring of lowblood subgrubs, and beyond those are the high black sea-cliffs, glistening like charcoal in the unrelenting light. Casting a shadow over one lonely section of the cliff is a tall, dark stack, adorned with a remarkable and terrible structure. Resembling a mad tyrant’s citadel, the monstrous hive on the stack is covered with spikes, twisting, strangely whimsical bridges and spiralling staircases branching to innumerable landings and balconies. The black stone structure is painted with all colours, but mostly rust red and lime green. The stack is linked to the mainland by a rope bridge, which leads to the front door of the hive.

 

The front door of the hive is open just a crack, and beyond the threshold, in shadow crouches the hive’s owner. He is a tall, gangly troll, with a bony body. He wears a white button-up jacket with a few pockets, and red and green pyjama pants. The grey skin on his face is mostly covered by bone white makeup: the makeup gives the face serpentine fangs, a skull-like nose and diamonds around the eyes. Also daubed the face are two red spirals, one on each cheek. The boy’s horns are curvy, and the one on the right is topped by a plus sign. His hair is styled in four curly blobs. On his jacket pocket is the sign of CAPRICEN.

 

Right now, he waits for three of his friends to arrive, having sent out clear invitations to come to his hive.

 

His name is DREKUL HIRYDE. And he is not alone.

 

**DREKUL: Now, I don’t necessarily nurture a fondness for pervading punctuality, but…**

**DREKUL: Shouldn’t at least some of them be here by now?**

**DREKUL: It’s getting threatening out there…**

**ASTRAH: h-o-w can y-o-u be s-o- desperate f-o-r c-o-mpany when i’m right here**

**ASTRAH: i kn-o-w y-o-u’re super t-o-rtured and all that but that’s n-o-t real indicative -o-f a guy wh-o- wants t-o- thr-o-w a hive party**

 

ASTRAH MITIUM steps out of the shadowy recesses to squint into the sunlight as well, with her one working eye. Her left eye is the regular yellow, but her other is covered by a red patch. From underneath the patch, white fluid oozes in ethereal streams that fade to vapour when they leave her face. Her short hair frames her face, and from beneath her hair her thin, curling horns emerge, forming two segments of an incomplete ring above the crown of her head. She’s wearing a long-sleeve black turtleneck shirt. The breast of the shirt is emblazoned with the sign of ARRA (made awkwardly prominent by her annoyingly large chest). She’s also wearing grey jeans, black shoes, and a red backpack and scarf. Looking out into the glare, she sees nothing, but after a while cringes back into the shadows, away from the light and heat.

 

**ASTRAH: christ, i can see why they haven’t turned up yet**

**DREKUL: I’m not performing a hive party, Astrah!**

**DREKUL: What we will do today might determine the destiny of all of Alternia!**

**DREKUL: Or at least, we would, if we could be bothered to bring ourselves to this place punctually!**

**ASTRAH: hey, master p-o-et, y-o-u’re saying “punctually” t-o-o- -o-ften**

**ASTRAH: y-o-u s-o-und m-o-re amateur than y-o-ur lusus at this alliterati-o-n game**

 

Drekul glares at her, resumes his determined scanning of the horizon, before snapping back around to glare even more fiercely.

 

**DREKUL: Let my lusus be!**

**ASTRAH: i will when…**

**ASTRAH: nah actually y-o-ur lusus is the best -o-ne in the wh-o-le w-o-rld**

**ASTRAH: he d-o-esn’t scream as much as mine**

 

Drekul scowled at her before turning away. He had met Astrah’s lusus, and she was… atypical, in most ways, to say the least. Most often, lusii chose their charges, not the other way around. Also, lusii were usually not dead trolls revived with abnormal psionic powers. Lost in thought, Drekul almost missed an abnormality appearing in his sight.

 

**DREKUL: Ah! Astrah, become aware!**

**ASTRAH: i’m n-o-t l-o-o-king -o-ut there again!**

Drekul grabbed her by the collar and pulled her over, his sharp teeth now glittering and exposed in a wide, childlike smile. Astrah grunted and covered her working eye when the light fell upon her.

 

**DREKUL: Alright, Astrah, be that way, whatever!**

**ASTRAH: try t-o- blind me again and i’m t-o-ssing y-o-u -o-ut there t-o- get s-o-me vitamin d**

**ASTRAH: the “d” stands f-o-r “death”**

**ASTRAH: -o-r “disintegrati-o-n”**

 

Crossing the horizon is a black dot, moving incredibly fast across the salty coastal soil. Even from the hive, Drekul can hear the titanic footfalls of the creature approaching. An unswerving creature of great strength and permeating tiredness. The black dot draws closer, to the point where Drekul can make out the figure’s silhouetted features amongst the glare: in particular his stout frame and hooked horns.

 

**DREKUL: Look, fuckwit, it’s Preedo!**

**ASTRAH: l-o-o-k fuckwit, i d-o-n’- h-o-ly SHIT preed-o-???**

 

Indeed, it was Preedo, hurtling across the sun-bleached land, visibly covered by his deep black cape. Astrah grinned but met Drekul’s smile with a scowl as soon as he caught her eye.

 

**DREKUL: Go brood in the rumpusblock, I am anticipating the gaining of guests that I will welcome!**

**ASTRAH: try n-o-t t-o- kill y-o-urself deep chuting y-o-ur -o-wn bill-o-w thr-o-bber**

**ASTRAH: in fr-o-nt -o-f MY friends**

She, nevertheless, skulks off. Drekul shrugs. Astrah really doesn’t like staying up into the day, but this is important business.

 

Astrah stalks into the rumpusblock and sits down on one of Drekul’s lavishly, morbidly purple couches. The room is very tall and adorned with fine tapestries, vandalised according to tradition with highblood makeup painted over the top (Drekul’s not even that good at painting, so the art looks more savaged than merely graffitied on). Besides the tapestries, there are also paintings of spaceships and planets blowing up. Typical boy stuff, Astrah dismissively thinks.

 

She’s not alone in the rumpusblock, but its other occupant prefers not to speak in most situations. Astrah watches as her lusus shambles out of a dark corner where, Astrah notes, she was looking out of a window at the sea. She’s exceptionally decayed, having died like a million sweeps ago and only being partially regenerated by Astrah’s psionics. Still, there are the remnants of a lower jaw, still painted with cerulean, beneath her dry, desiccated face. To her shrivelled, twisted body, the remnants of the lavish gamblignant’s outfit she wore in life still clings. Both of her eyes are pure white.

 

**DIRTFANG: Hey, low8lood!**

**ASTRAH: yeah?**

**DIRTFANG: When are you going to kill me????????**

**DIRTFANG: All of this? It’s getting ridiculous!**

**ASTRAH: l-o-o-k, mudqueen spinnerdead dirtfang-**

**DIRTFANG: Th8t’s not my NAME!!!!!!!!**

**ASTRAH: i wasn’t finished speaking**

 

Astrah turned to face her lusus, smiling evilly. Immediately, Dirtfang cringed back a tiny bit.

 

**ASTRAH: if my research is c-o-rrect, distinguished highbl-o-o-d**

**ASTRAH: y-o-u were s-o-mething -o-f a h-o-rrible brain-rapist murderer in life, things i as a l-o-wbl-o-o-d d-o- n-o-t respect**

**ASTRAH: all -o-f y-o-ur victims are n-o-w l-o-ng dead**

**ASTRAH: as were y-o-u**

**ASTRAH: we b-o-th kn-o-w that there is S-O-ME f-o-rm -o-f existence after death**

**ASTRAH: can y-o-u f-o-ll-o-w my l-o-gic?**

**DIRTFANG: Your logic is stupid.**

**ASTRAH: if y-o-u’re n-o-t in the land -o-f the dead, the dead pe-o-ple d-o-n’t have t-o- put up with y-o-u!**

**ASTRAH: s-o-o-o-o-**

 

Astrah fixed Dirtfang with a manic, wide-eyed grin. By this time, Dirtfang had pressed her stiff, mummified body against the wall, her poise betraying the fear that she kept off of her face.

 

**ASTRAH: i’m NEVER g-o-nna let y-o-u die!**

**DREKUL: Hey, assface, stop cajoling your custodian! It’s time to attend to business!**

 

Astrah’s face crumples into an expression of discontent before swinging her body around to face Drekul.

 

Drekul stands in the grand entranceway to his rumpusblock, and with him is a massive figure heavily cloaked in black. Strangely, parts of the cloak seem to be wriggling, like the figure has extra arms and legs. The figure lifts his hood off of his horned head, revealing Preedo’s blocky head and stern, tired face. Astrah waves, and he gives a small nod, before quickly throwing off his coat to reveal where the strange wriggling was coming from: Exanda is also there with him, clinging to his back and looking dazed. He still manages a friendly smile at Drekul. Strangely, he seems to avert his eyes from Astrah, so she merely shrugs and looked back at Preedo.

 

**ASTRAH: hey preeds, hey exanda!**

**PREEDO: rrAstrah! Hello!rr**

**EXANDA: uhhh, h-h^, astrah**

 

Preedo steps forward and envelops Astrah in a massive hug, causing her to give a yelp of surprise. Exanda drops off of Preedo and shyly backs off, before bumping into Drekul, who doesn’t even flinch. He leans down as Exanda jumps and turns to face him.

 

**DREKUL: Hello, Exanda.**

**EXANDA: argh! uhh, um, h^ drekul!**

**EXANDA: h-how are you do^ng?**

**DREKUL: Actually admirable! It’s been many moons since we last saw each of ourselves!**

**DREKUL: Did you bring the block?**

**EXANDA: the slab? erm, yep!**

 

Exanda walks over to Preedo and nudges his waist. Preedo, seeming to only barely feel it, reaches down and pulls a small package wrapped in paper out of his shorts’ pocket. He hands it to Exanda.

 

**EXANDA: (thanks, preedo)**

 

Drekul kneels down to look directly into Exanda’s eyes. His grin is very, very sharp.

 

**DREKUL: Brilliant. We may now begin.**

 

Exanda, forcing an expression of comfort, holds out the package. He takes it forcefully before straightening up with a grandiose flourish of the hand. Exanda backs off slowly to hang out near Preedo, who’s been talking to Astrah for some time.

 

**PREEDO: rr…No, its been really interesting. A real tragedyrr**

**PREEDO: rrI cant believe that Snowow Vwithe had to run away from home to escape the Empress…rr**

**PREEDO: rrShes not even a lowblood like you or me, shes a jade!rr**

**ASTRAH: w-o-w, that really d-o-es suck f-o-r her**

**PREEDO: rrUgh! Im so MAD now that I think about it!rr**

**ASTRAH: w-o-ah, w-o-ah, n-o- need t-o- be s-o- cranky ab-o-ut it, it’s just a st-o-ry**

**PREEDO: rrThe tale of Snowow Vwithe is reflective of real injustice, Astrah. I HAVE to be crankyrr**

**DREKUL: Ahem!**

 

Preedo stops, and rotates to face Drekul, looking intrigued. Astrah exhales loudly and angrily before jerking around to glare at him. He smiles maliciously and smugly at her and bows to Preedo before walking to a corner of the room, where he has set up what appears to be a blackboard covered with notes on anatomy, including elaborate diagrams of the inside of a horn. He flips the board over, grabs some chalk from the chalk holder and stands next to it, ready to begin talking. The others clamber onto the couches and face Drekul.

 

**DREKUL: So, Parchi is presently preoccupied? She can’t come?**

**PREEDO: rrYes, sure seems that wayrr**

**DREKUL: Fine.**

**DREKUL: Now, everybody, as you all are aware, I have kept the incidence inciting your invitation quite concealed.**

**DREKUL: I didn’t want to detonate your thinkpans too early.**

**ASTRAH: y-o-ur quirk’s slipping**

**DREKUL: Fuck you. Don’t interrupt.**

**DREKUL: Now, anyway, Exanda, could you come up here?**

 

Preedo nudges Exanda, who walks up to Drekul’s presentation area slowly. Drekul shows off the package he got from Exanda, moving it in a circle so that everyone gets a good look, and rips off the paper in one clean motion, revealing the chipped, whitish stone prism beneath. He passes it to Exanda, who holds it tight, and returns to addressing the crowd

 

**DREKUL: Exanda here has made a fine finding. A slab scribed with Ancient Alternian. A prophecy.**

**EXANDA: oh, well, ^t wasn’t ALL me. ^ couldn’t’ve done ^t w^thout my dad!**

**DREKUL: A dazzling dad you have too, though mine is much more marvellous.**

**DREKUL: Anyway, Exanda, do us the delight of seeing what this slab says.**

**EXANDA: ^’ll, uh, do my best!**

Exanda moves behind Drekul to reach the blackboard, and he moves out of the way to stand ramrod straight, staring. Exanda nervously looks to the tablet and then to the blackboard, beginning to painstakingly write in meticulous detail every rune that makes up the tablet’s contents. After just more than five minutes, Exanda puts down his chalk and exhales loudly. Preedo and Astrah, now more interested than before, lean forwards to gaze at the symbols, though they betray nothing. After a brief silence, Drekul speaks:

 

**DREKUL: I would have written it in _Modern_ Alternian, Exanda.**

**EXANDA: oh, um, uh, okay...**

Writing it in Modern Alternian takes less time, and at last everyone can read the writing, though the words were still meaningless:

 

**PIEXES RA STRATORUS YOM**

**TAS CHZEMBE LO PROGENEA HAKEA RA VANTAS UNA PETA**

**XE VALLOM LO SPIRA RA GRUSTER**

**UN ATRA CAPTOR MORTAS**

**LO SKADAPODOS**

**LO GYAMA**

**LO PROPADER**

**LO PHALADA**

**LO KEM**

 

**EXANDA: so now, ^’ll prov^de a translat^on!**

 

He takes a deep breath, and no one has the heart to tell him to hurry up.

 

**EXANDA: “our k^ng of storms”**

**EXANDA: “does ^nv^te the ch^ldren…”**

**EXANDA: well, hakea ^s a funny word.**

**EXANDA: ^t can mean e^ther “hatched ^n” or “r^sen above”.**

**EXANDA: anyway, “does ^nv^te the ch^ldren hatched ^n blood and f^lth”**

**EXANDA: “to cl^mb the sp^rograph sp^re”**

**EXANDA: “and ach^eve l^m^tless power”**

**DREKUL: But what’s the most meaningful segment of the song?**

**EXANDA: ^’m gett^ng there…**

**EXANDA: the tablet’s prophecy l^sts our true s^gns by name!**

**EXANDA: “the taskmaster, the wayward, the temperer, the student, the staunch”!**

 

As he says this, Exanda indicates the signs of Drekul, Astrah, himself and Preedo. Preedo bends down to look at his sign in something resembling subdued awe. Exanda, pulsing with energy, continues.

 

**EXANDA: the ^mpl^cat^ons are, of course, astound^ng!**

**EXANDA: we were meant to f^nd th^s message!**

**EXANDA: but…**

 

Suddenly, he loses steam, and lowers his head.

 

**EXANDA: ^ have to adm^t… ^ am, uh… pretty scared.**

**EXANDA: ^’ve never even thought about enter^ng the sp^re before now… even though ^t’s so fasc^nat^ng.**

**PREEDO: rrTell us about it!rr**

**DREKUL: Yes, please.**

**EXANDA: oh! ^’ll, um, uh, ^’ll try!**

**EXANDA: the sp^re ^s astound^ngly anc^ent. l^ke, ^’m talk^ng M^LL^ONS of sweeps old.**

**EXANDA: records left by the f^rst emperor before altern^a was un^f^ed ^nd^cate that ^t predates the f^rst altern^an dynasty.**

**ASTRAH: y-o-u’re talking ab-o-ut like it’s such a great thing**

**ASTRAH: but i can tell y-o-u s-o-mething ab-o-ut it**

 

Exanda stops, nervously. Astrah leans forward in her seat, scarf swinging out in front of her, highlighting her intense gaze.

 

**ASTRAH: y-o-u all kn-o-w i’ve been t-o- the waste z-o-ne**

**ASTRAH: i went with y-o-u, drekul**

**ASTRAH: and -o-n th-o-se trips, i w-o-uld stand in the shad-o-w -o-f the spiro-o-graph spire**

**ASTRAH: and i w-o-uld FEEL things**

 

She indicates her eyepatch.

 

**ASTRAH: the spire res-o-nates with dark energy**

**ASTRAH: ech-o-es of darkest tragedies, f-o-rgotten by the -o-utside w-o-rld**

**ASTRAH: the spire -O-O-ZES death**

**DREKUL: Well, Astrah, it is apparent that the Spire cannot be blundered into: no explorer has ever exited after ascending the first floors, right Exanda?**

**EXANDA: uh, yep, that’s about r^ght.**

**DREKUL: Since you’re stupid, you probably psionically misinterpreted the described “dark energy”.**

**ASTRAH: if y-o-u think i’m such an idi-o-t, why did y-o-u GIVE me the p-o-wer t-o- sense dark energy, huh, cl-o-wnyshits?**

**ASTRAH: i mean, there’s abs-o-lutely N-O- way that y-o-u’re a c-o-mplete failure -o-f a brain d-o-ct-o-r wh-o-‘s permanently fucked me -o-ver, right?!**

**PREEDO: rrJesus hecking Christ, you tworr**

Preedo stands, exasperatedly placing a palm over his forehead. He looks down at Drekul, whose horns barely pass Preedo’s eye level. Drekul’s vicious glare of black hate towards Astrah softens immediately into an expression of purple-flushed embarrassment.

 

**EXANDA: ^ have to adm^t, ^’d rather you carr^ed on w^th your k^smess^s^tude another t^me.**

**DREKUL: Noted.**

**ASTRAH: -o-kay**

 

Preedo sits back down. Drekul straightens up slowly and resumes his previous manner.

 

**DREKUL: Now, we come to the crux of the issue.**

**DREKUL: Will we climb the Spirograph Spire?**

**PREEDO: rr…I dont know. It seems… well, dangerousrr**

**ASTRAH: w-o-w, big guy**

**ASTRAH: y-o-u’re a tr-o-ll, right?**

**ASTRAH: “danger-o-us” is a pretty g-o-o-d descripti-o-n -o-f any p-o-ssible situati-o-n y-o-u c-o-uld ever find y-o-urself in**

**PREEDO: rrI know that!rr**

**PREEDO: rrBut it seems to me like I could get … killed?rr**

**DREKUL: But let’s look at ourselves, including Parchi.**

**DREKUL: Three of us obviously overcame many monstrous deterrents during our developments, having been hatched in the Waste Zone.**

**DREKUL: Two among us are psionic demigods.**

**ASTRAH: i’m flattered, drekul!**

**DREKUL: I’m getting sick of your shit.**

**DREKUL: Anyway, among us also is an incomparable intellectual, a breathing battleship and…**

**DREKUL: …well…**

 

Drekul’s smile quickly turns into one that is both confident and deeply, deeply evil.

 

**DREKUL: … _me_.**

**DREKUL: The chances of our clan coming to catastrophic harm is nicely negligible.**

**PREEDO: rrI guess youre right…rr**

**PREEDO: rrI can handle myself, but what about Exanda?rr**

**EXANDA: yeah, what about me?**

**EXANDA: ^’m an ^nformat^on broker, not some k^nd of expert f^ghter.**

**DREKUL: Your knowledge of the Spire supersedes your slightness.**

**DREKUL: In general, you’re even more intelligent than I.**

**DREKUL: You will prove useful.**

**EXANDA: ^ only know so much.**

**EXANDA: you’re a h^ghblood. what happens when ^’m of no more use to you?**

**DREKUL: What? We’re friends!**

**DREKUL: Please don’t determine that I’m using you all: I’m trying to think of us as a unit.**

**ASTRAH: yeah, d-o-n’t w-o-rry, exanda**

**ASTRAH: drekul talks a big talk, but he IS y-o-ur friend in the end**

**PREEDO: rrI will protect you, Exanda. You have nothing to fearrr**

**EXANDA: woah, jeez, guys! ^’m not totally helpless!**

**ASTRAH: yeah but y-o-u’re t-o-tally ad-o-rable**

 

Exanda blushes furiously and attempts to jump off the couch, but before he can, he feels a constriction around his abdomen, as if an invisible cord had tightened against his form. Immediately, he is lifted back onto the couch by Astrah, who, grinning like a woman possessed, begins to noogie him ferociously, invoking many squealed protests, while Preedo chuckles from afar. Drekul also allows himself a laugh, leaning against his blackboard.

 

**EXANDA: get off get off get off!!! 8D**

 

Astrah, smirking playfully, releases Exanda’s head and waves them in the air above his head. He flops onto the couch, resting the back of his neck on the arm of the couch, smiling contentedly up at Astrah, his eyes following the movements of her hands.

 

**DREKUL: This is the impetus for my appeal to you.**

**DREKUL: We are a wonderful team!**

**DREKUL: Have I persuaded you? Have I earned your permission?**

**DIRTFANG: Can I just say…**

 

Dirtfang suddenly leans over the couch, causing Astrah and Exanda to jump. She focusses her misted eyes on Drekul.

 

**DIRTFANG: …that I agree with the purple8lood?**

**DIRTFANG: Adventure calls, Astrah. I know a thing or two a8out destiny, and it’s not something to 8e denied.**

**DIRTFANG: If you won’t go, my 8et is that something horri8le will happen to you.**

**DIRTFANG: And after all, if you’re dead or crippled, who’s going to keep me around to suffer for my crimes?**

**DREKUL: Thank you, my beautiful bonebag buccaneer buddy!**

**DIRTFANG: I still h8 you just as much as the rest of Astrah’s friends.**

**DIRTFANG: We are not 8uccaneer 8uddies.**

**ASTRAH: yeah, drekul, this -o-ne’s a real meanie**

**ASTRAH: y-o-u d-o-n’t want t-o- be her buccaneer buddy**

**DREKUL: Agreeable, alright. You’ll make for a maximal cannon chewtoy because you’re the biggest target.**

**ASTRAH: n-o-, drekul, we’re n-o-t using dirtfang f-o-r cann-o-n f-o-dder, her death privileges have been rev-o-ked**

Astrah sits up on the couch to better shoot her lusus a challenging gaze.

 

**ASTRAH: th-o-ugh, i better c-o-me al-o-ng if y-o-u and dirtfang are g-o-ing. i’ve g-o-t t-o- l-o-o-k -o-ut f-o-r b-o-th -o-f y-o-u m-o-r-o-ns**

**EXANDA: ^’ll be a moron, too!**

**DREKUL: You can be our auxiliary astute asshat for when we jump into a jam in the Spire.**

**EXANDA: yep! 8)**

**PREEDO: rrIll come along, for Exandarr**

**PREEDO: rrI guess the rest of you guys could put some brute force to good userr**

**EXANDA: awwww, thanks!**

**DREKUL: Right there, thou art.**

**ASTRAH: -o-h shit, he’s talking like tr-o-ll shakespeare, he’s run -o-ut -o-f w-o-rds**

**ASTRAH: brace f-o-r tantrums**

**DREKUL: I don’t display such beastly behaviour in any appearance!**

**ASTRAH: yeah fuckin’ right**

**DREKUL: URRRGH.**

**DREKUL: Anyway, all that remains to remedy is Parchi’s lack of enlightenment to our current course.**

**DREKUL: I sent her many messages, but she has reneged on the responsibility of replying.**

**PREEDO: rrShe probably went to sleep ages agorr**

**PREEDO: rrShe doesnt like to stay up laterr**

**DREKUL: *Siiiiiiigh***

**DREKUL: Looks like I’ll have to harass her when she’s not slumbering.**

**DREKUL: I’ll handle her, guys, don’t be distressed.**

 

Drekul steps down from next to his blackboard and holds out his hand.

 

**DREKUL: Thanks for turning up, everyone. I’m greatly glad that you are all coming with me into the Spire.**

**ASTRAH: this better be w-o-rth it**

**EXANDA: come on, astrah! let’s do th^s!**

**PREEDO: rrIf I die, Im going to be really mad, Drekulrr**

**PREEDO: rrI will get Astrah to resurrect me and I will haunt your liferr**

**DREKUL: Noted.**

He shakes hands with everyone.

 

**DREKUL: You’re all welcome to wait out the day. I have guest recuperacoons galore.**

**EXANDA: wow, thanks, ^’m REALLY t^red.**

**PREEDO: rr*Yawn*rr**

**PREEDO: rrMe too…rr**

 

Gradually, the group breaks apart, with Drekul taking people to his guest respiteblocks one-by-one to get settled in when tiredness overwhelms them. Eventually, he is alone, standing in the deep centre of his dark hive. The smile on his face is both his most genuine and most terrifying. As a poet, the idea of the wheels of destiny turning, of the universe revealing its machinations, appeals to him. As a narcissist, the idea of being the one who set the wheels in motion appeals to him even more.

 

Drekul was right to think that way. Indeed, the world was changing, moving towards a final outcome incomprehensible to him. And the future lay within the Spirograph Spire, at its stark-white summit.


	5. Empty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> School picked up, so this chapter took longer than the others. Enjoy this calm before the storm!

==-> Be Astrah.

 

**_DREKUL: Astrah? Astrah!_ **

_It hurts like hell, all of it. Your head feels like it’s splitting, like it’s burning, not aided at all by the machinations of Drekul. His frantic yelling drags you back to consciousness, and you can feel your boiling mind and your entire useless body scream out against the awareness. Stupid fool. He was supposed to be anesthetising you._

**_DREKUL: Can you comprehend me?_ **

****

_IDIOT. You can see him in the corner of your still functioning eye, fumbling around with his tools and his giant saw while you’re strapped down on his operating table. He should have let you die on the floor of your hive. You were hatched with your thinkpan already rotting. It was only a matter of time before you just keeled over dead._

**_DREKUL: I’m introducing inductor 5 into your cortex. Brace for impact._ **

**_DREKUL: I’m so sorry._ **

_Oh, so the other four inductors aren’t enough? You need more? God, you’re a handfuUUUUUL-_

_When the pain dies down, you realise that you can’t feel anything anymore. But you can **see** things._

 

You are now Astrah Mitium, and you’ve just had a bad memory. You are in one of Drekul’s shoddy guest respiteblocks, having stayed the day at his gaudy hive. You are preparing to go on an adventure with him and your other friends. You are in the process of putting on the finishing touches of your makeup: namely, putting on your eyepatch.

 

What will you do?

 

==-> Astrah: Ponder memory.

 

You look into your own eyes as you decide to do this. Your left eye is pretty average, but your right eye is a solid, misty white. From your lower eyelid, ethereal, evil-smelling white fluid flows in constant streams. You’ve tried stoppering the flow of ghostly tears, but nothing works.

 

You were thinking about how (as much as you hate to admit it to yourself) Drekul saved your life. Your brain was dying for one reason or another, and he cut your thinkpan open and jammed electrodes in there. Just like Drekul: claiming to be some kind of savant, then brute-forcing his way through a problem on the off-chance that he succeeds without having to think. You… survived, you think, but… not without _losing_ some parts of yourself.

 

==-> Astrah: Apply eyepatch.

 

You put the strap of the eyepatch around the back of your head and slap the patch itself over your eye. The eye totally blind unless you’re using your powers: you wear the eyepatch so that you can use your powers without _seeing_ , as well. You look down at your hand and acknowledge that you can’t feel anything with it. Ever since the operation, patches of non-sensation have been randomly appearing on your body. You don’t mind too much: when most of your pain receptors switch off, you don’t feel the cold that seems to follow you everywhere. It’s the reason you wear scarfs.

 

==-> Astrah: Get ready for adventure.

 

Now that you can go out in public, you survey the work that you’ve already done to prepare. On the other side of the room, next to the (quite shoddy) recuperacoon, is your BACKPACK. With it, you can carry certain important items. Next to the backpack is your lusus, slumped on the floor, looking dead. This is alright: Dirtfang is never really “dead”, not on your watch. The state that you can inflict on her is more like a deep coma, but for the spirit as well as the body. You’re getting ready to transport her.

 

Your strife specibus is BELTKIND. There is a belt on the floor, which you focus on. A presence, something undeniably you, yet outside of your body, begins to be… _funnelled_ through your form. When its energy leaves you, it’s like you’ve manifested a third arm that you use to lift the belt. A white glow begins to be emitted from your skin, and it also surrounds the belt as it floats under your power.

 

With a few short strikes, and a few short, grisly cracking sounds, Dirtfang’s comatose body is smashed into more conveniently-sized fragments. These, you can transport. Dirtfang’s skin is an illusion, projected by her spirit, which isn’t fully leashed to her body as it would be to a living being’s. She’s really just a bunch of bones; a skeleton that’s not even complete, which comes from being a million sweeps dead. She could appear as a nearly perfect approximation of her form while alive normally, but you keep a tight hold on her capabilities: she won’t “manipul8” anyone looking like a shadow dropper from the desert.

 

You stuff the bones into your backpack on top of some food you raided from Drekul’s meal block when he wasn’t paying attention. Dirtfang is nearly useless, but she is extra muscle and a big target. Going by height, after Preedo and Dirtfang, you’re the tallest. Drekul is four centimetres shorter than you (horns don’t count, as you make a point of reminding him every time it comes up), then Exanda’s the next tallest, and finally Parchi is the shortest among your posse. Your four friends would all be rubbish meatshields for you, considering you care about them or something.

 

==-> Astrah: Exit respiteblock.

 

You sling your backpack over your shoulder and step through the door of the guest block and head out into Drekul’s hive. The bastard saw fit to make the place as labyrinthine as possible when he was but a wee grub: clearly, he foresaw his glorious future of perplexing and annoying the crap out of people. Of course, you know the way out, or at least, you think you do. It’s easy to get turned around amidst the purple-carpeted, dark-walled corridors. The hallways are decorated liberally with suits of armour and paintings, most of them abstract. You hate Drekul’s taste in decoration. You hate him so much.

 

Crap, you have a sneaking suspicion everyone left without you.

 

Eventually you come to a door. You open it, and suddenly you’re one hundred feet above the ground and the salty sea wind is howling in your face, battering your clothes and hair with hard droplets of rain. Gasping and spluttering, you cringe back into the hallway. Outside is the roof of one of Drekul’s hive’s towers. It’s a flat, slick and night-dark surface, wet from the torrential downpour. No barrier of any kind exists to stop you from falling into the raging black sea hundreds of feet below. He has loads of these towers.

 

You can hear something outside, so you poke your head out to look. Strange, heavy striking sounds, and the creepy groaning of heavy stone. You can see a flash of something white crawling along the tower wall and out of your sight. And then, a huge and glistening monstrosity slithers onto the top of the tower, having scaled the wall all the way up from the sea. It’s Drekul’s lusus, a THALASSIC FRONDWYRM. From his ovoid, froglike head, four huge flaps adorned with frills emerge, and he indicates his curiosity regarding you by fanning them out and meeting your gaze with his tiny eyes (though each of the eyes is as big as an Arena Stickball… ball…)

 

**ASTRAH: hey fr-o-nds!**

 

Drekul’s lusus is an absolute bapy and you love him. Immediately upon hearing your voice (all frondwyrms have terrible eyesight, he probably didn’t recognise you at first) he bounds over to you, his long body undulating as his webbed feet move in a pseudo-gallop. You reflexively move backwards, but he stops just before you, sitting down on his haunches. Even then, he’s six times taller than you.

 

**ASTRAH: did drekul say g-o-o-dbye t-o- y-o-u?**

 

He looks down at you, and you detect Fronds’ refusal and confusion. You groan internally; just like Drekul to abandon his poor custodian.

 

**ASTRAH: -o-kay… listen up**

**ASTRAH: drekul will be g-o-ne f-o-r a while. i d-o-n’t kn-o-w h-o-w l-o-ng exactly**

**ASTRAH: he will be back th-o-ugh!**

 

He gives you a nervous look, the lips of his wide, wide mouth quivering. Thalassic frondwyrms are one of the kindest lusii on Alternia, and Fronds is no different: Fronds brings Drekul the majority of the food he eats, and mostly stays out of his business. Lucky bastard. The whole world bends over backwards to please him and he’s still the worst son of a grub you know. Anyway, you’ve got to reassure Fronds quick: frondwyrms are very protective.

 

**ASTRAH: l-o-o-k, fr-o-nds, i’ll l-o-o-k after him s-o- he d-o-esn’t get hurt, understand?**

**ASTRAH: i’ll make sure he c-o-mes back h-o-me t-o- y-o-u after -o-ur adventure’s -o-ver**

 

Fronds looks down at you for the longest time. Finally, he bends down, holding his head at about the same height as yours. Cautiously, but warmly, you place your hand on the bridge of his snout, and he makes a small noise of gratitude, opening his lips to reveal the razor-sharp fangs he keeps beneath them. You can tell he’s just done something really special and important: he’s passed the responsibility of caring for Drekul onto you.

 

**ASTRAH: (gee, thanks)**

**ASTRAH: anyway, y-o-u have n-o-thing t-o- fear**

**ASTRAH: y-o-ur idi-o-t will be back bef-o-re y-o-u kn-o-w it!**

 

Finally placated, Fronds raises his head back up, and, with a run and jump, dives back into the dark water. Perhaps he saw a baby skywhale and decided he wanted to sink his teeth into it.

 

With nothing else to do, you turn around and head back into the hive. As you move through the labyrinthine corridors, you finally come to a “landmark” you recognise: one of Drekul’s many suits of armour, all black with twisted horns protruding from the back of the helmet. If you continue down this corridor, then make a left, then a right, then left, forward, right, right…

 

Nope. You’re lost. But there’s a door in front of you that you think you’ve seen before. It has a complex system of locks, but it seems like they’re all unlocked.

 

==-> Astrah: Open door.

 

You open the door and the stench of blood fills your nostrils, as if the metallic-smelling fumes are pungent, ghostly fingers trying to grasp your brain itself. The room is dark, but you suddenly recall this place: Drekul’s operating theatre. This is where he “saved” you.

 

He’s not a big fan of cleaning, so the room, enveloped in darkness, stinks. You choose not to step in, but you can see the centrepiece of the chamber: the operating table, with the same crazy, ramshackle inductor headset he operated on you with poised above the head of the table. Clearly, he hasn’t had anyone else in the room since your operation. He fancies himself a doctor (or whatever he’s calling himself nowanights), saving people from being culled, but his surgeries’ results are almost always death and mutilation.

 

You don’t want to see this anymore. Normally, death is your thing, but this is too… Drekul… for your taste.

 

==-> Astrah: Close door.

 

You close the door. You have more important things to do than brood.

 

==-> Astrah: Leave.

 

After a while, you reach the rumpusblock and, moving past it, you finally exit Drekul’s hive. The cold sea air washes over your face once again as you behold the very unfabulous rope bridge that links the hive to the mainland, currently being beset by rain and winds.

 

You raise a barrier above yourself to shield your body from the rain. You don’t care about rain normally, but you put special effort into your makeup tonight and your helpful spots of non-sensation seem to have shrunk annoyingly. Plus, no need to add more cold to what you feel all the time. As you make your first step out onto the sturdy but unsettlingly shaking bridge, you wonder if Fronds is going to follow you to Drekul. You decide he doesn’t need to: if Drekul were ever in real danger, Fronds would sense it and come to his rescue.

 

For a moment, as you cross through the wild weather to an uncertain fate, you wonder if someone would seek to rescue you from death no matter how far you were from them or how insurmountable the odds of your survival were. You dismiss the negative thought: you’ll be going through the Spire with your friends, who are pretty combat-capable (except for Exanda, the poor guy).

 

But as you finally step out onto land and begin your trek, you wonder if you could step up and save a friend if the time came. Are you strong enough? And if you are… what does that mean?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time, we enter the Spire.


	6. Halls of Mystery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long hiatus! New mysteries are ahead!

==-> Be Future Astrah.

 

You are now Astrah in the future, striding forth into a young night with the moons shining overhead. Garbage crunches and rustles beneath your shoes. Miasma snakes through the musty, pungent air. Old, black, ruined skyscrapers claw at the sky. The Spirograph Spire looms large, pristine and ageless, as if to mock the achievements and failings of trollkind. You’ve arrived at the heart of the Waste Zone, and already you can feel it. Turmoil, torment, death; echoes emanate from the Spire, pained whispers that seek to worm their way into your head like a cold, dry draught slipping into a tidy hive. You press on, however; no sense in turning back now.

 

Before you, at the end of a long, straight, cracked street, is the base of the Spire. There is no visible entrance, but everyone knows that a door isn’t needed for the Spire to invite you in. At the end of the street, standing at that sleek, white threshold, is a cluster of four figures. One tall, one wide and two short.

 

As you make your final approach, you see that (though you had no other suspicions) the figures are indeed your friends. Parchi leans against a wall, puffed-up and excitedly grinning. Exanda and Preedo stand side by side, very seriously but with postures betraying nerves. Drekul stands in the centre of the gathering, erect and unnaturally rigid, smugly smiling in that special way that makes you want to hit him. They’re all looking at you.

 

**PARCHI: ##EY ASTRA#! LONG TIME NO SEE!#**

 

Parchi pushes herself off the wall and saunters over to you. Her head comes up a little past your waist, and she looks up at you with her ever-present precocious smirk. You give her a fist bump.

 

**ASTRAH: well, well, well**

**ASTRAH: if it isn’t my fav-o-urite little trash m-o-nster!**

**ASTRAH: eat any c-o-o-l bugs lately?**

**PARCHI: #MY BUGS #AVE BEEN EFFERVESCENT, T#ANK YOU#**

**PARCHI: #NONE #AVE ESCAPED MY JAWS!#**

 

She makes gnashing motions with her teeth. You ruffle her ragged hair (causing her to stick out her tongue at you) and go closer to the main group.

 

**DREKUL: Astrah. It’s an inexpressible importance that you bring to our band.**

**ASTRAH: g-o- t-o- the l-o-ad gaper and shit d-o-wn y-o-ur -o-wn chute, drekul**

**ASTRAH: why’d y-o-u leave with-o-ut me?**

**PARCHI: #T#EY ALL #AD TO COME AND GET ME BECAUSE I’M T#AT COOL#**

**PREEDO: rrMore like because you never answer your text messages!rr**

**PARCHI: #I’M… MYSTERIOUS AND ALOOF#**

**DREKUL: Nope! Just socially stunted.**

**PREEDO: rrAstrah, we all left so we could know if Parchi wanted to comerr**

You turn to Parchi.

 

**ASTRAH: d-o- y-o-u?**

**PARCHI: #I’M NOT PASSING UP AN OPPORTUNITY TO ANNOY YOU ALL TO DEAT##**

 

She grins impishly. You raise your eye to glance over everyone there, trying not to look at the Spire’s intimidating threshold.

 

**ASTRAH: we w-o-n’t survive if we didn’t bring -o-ur best weap-o-ns and -o-ther pr-o-visi-o-ns here**

 

Preedo steps forward. He reaches into one of his pockets and pulls something out: a bundle of keys. He jangles them around, and all of a sudden, a shadow falls on you. An enormous white beast with dragon wings lands in front of your friends with a thud, almost sending you to the ground. You notice that it is also laden with packs and bags.

 

**DREKUL: Preedo’s “Purrseus” is decorated in his duty to carry our cargo while we cavort within the column.**

**EXANDA: my dad’s com^ng too!**

 

At these words, Exanda’s tiny lusus wriggles up onto his shoulder. It must have been clinging to his back. It nuzzles its tiny snout into Exanda’s neck, sniffing.

 

**EXANDA: hghdhhfdjjg awww!!!**

**ASTRAH: y-o-u all kn-o-w my lusus is c-o-ming**

**ASTRAH: but we’re N-O-T trusting her with any supplies, capiche?**

**DREKUL: Agreed.**

**ASTRAH: i br-o-ught a weap-o-n, what ab-o-ut y-o-u guys?**

 

You produce your belt as the others use their Strife Decks. Preedo pulls out the huge iron gauntlets you helped make, already on his hands. Drekul brandishes a saw, neatly polished but with a cruel hook at the end, as if it was meant more for hurting than for healing. And Exanda pulls out… a gun.

 

**ASTRAH: …w-o-w exanda**

**EXANDA: what? ^ use p^stolk^nd. ^s-^s that okay?**

**EXANDA: were you expect^ng bookk^nd?**

**ASTRAH: i’m g-o-nna be h-o-nest… yeah i was**

**EXANDA: well, ^ have that one too, ^f, uhh, you’d rather ^ used ^t?**

**ASTRAH: d-o-n’t w-o-rry ab-o-ut me**

**ASTRAH: just keep using the gun**

 

You haven’t seen Exanda use a weapon before, but you guess it wouldn’t make sense for a guy like him living in such a dangerous environment to use a melee weapon.

 

**PARCHI: #I DON’T NEED A WEAPON#**

**PARCHI: #I AM AN UNSTOPPABLE PSYC#IC JUGGERNAUT#**

**DREKUL: If you insist…**

**DREKUL: Right then! If any of you must attend to any affairs before we breach this beauteous building and bear witness to its wonders…**

**DREKUL: Please say so.**

 

No one says anything. You give him a disapproving look, and he only smiles evilly in response. You don’t like the idea of him being the leader. He raises his hand to perform another stupid grand gesture.

 

**DREKUL: Right then! In-**

**ASTRAH: is everyb-o-dy sure?**

 

He looks down at you, and to your dismay he only looks a little bit put out. He just isn’t thinking, as usual, and you hope to God everyone can see it as well.

 

**DREKUL: The silence sounded sure to me, Astrah.**

**ASTRAH: need i remind y-o-u that we might…**

**ASTRAH: DIE in there?**

**ASTRAH: that we might N-O-T c-o-me back?**

**PARCHI: #T#AT DOESN’T MATTER MUC# TO ME#**

**PREEDO: rrMy lusus is with merr**

**PREEDO: rrIm not scared at all and Ive brought everything I need with merr**

**EXANDA: …^’m-^’m ready too.**

 

Drekul leers at you, triumphantly, and you try to look angry instead of defeated. Honestly… you know you’re afraid. You thought you could make one last appeal, just in case, but if everyone is serious and determined… you’ll have to let Drekul have his little victory just this once. Hopefully, he doesn’t get your friends killed. If he does, you’ll split his stupid head open.

 

**DREKUL: Anything else, Astrah?**

 

Without hesitating you stride past the others. You share a brief look with Exanda, trying to soften your Drekul-inspired glower into a reassuring expression, but he just shuffles his feet and blushes a bright tawny. You make a point of shoving Drekul out of your way with your shoulder.

 

**ASTRAH: fuck y-o-u**

**ASTRAH: in we g-o-, then**

 

You walk up to the smooth white wall of the Spire. It glows with its own light ever-so-softly, and under close scrutiny it possesses an ivory-like sheen. You look up, and it’s like you’re standing at the base of God’s throne. You step forward, so that the tip of your shoe just touches the wall, and the world instantly goes black.

 

==-> Be Drekul.

 

You are now Drekul Hiryde, and this is possibly the most important night of your life. Here in the Spire, your passions for LEADERSHIP and MEDICINE will finally be put to good use. You WERE going to gallantly lead your party of friends into the Spire in order to assuage their nerves. However, your pesky good-for-nothing kismesis stole your thunder and, once again, ruined everything. You’re quite put out, to be honest.

 

Astrah marched forward ahead of you and your friends and touched the Spire. The second she made contact she was pulled into the surface faster than the eye could see. The vanishing was followed by a dull ringing noise, accompanied by the wall of the Spire rippling like the surface of a muddy lake before quickly calming. This phenomenon, where a troll disappears upon encountering the Spire is called “wallgulping”.

 

**EXANDA: ^ck! ^’ve read about th^s, but ^t’s st^ll freaky ^n person!**

 

Now that Astrah’s psyching everyone out, it’s time to set a good example.

 

What will you do?

 

==-> Drekul: Follow.

 

You suppose that you’d better do it.

 

**DREKUL: Never fear. It’s normal. I’ll indicate it conclusively.**

 

You step forward until you’re right in front of the wall of the Spire. Now that you’re so close its height becomes dizzying; its size becomes truly incomprehensible. You’re standing at the black hole’s event horizon; the ultimate threshold.  All that’s left for you to do is…

 

==-> Drekul: Enter.

 

You take the final step, so that the tip of your shoe touches the Spire. After an instant of blackness, not unlike falling asleep and emerging into a dream, you are on the other side of that wall. Soon enough, you hear a series of ringing noises and the others, with their lusii, stand with you. Astrah is in front, gazing around the area with her hands on her hips.

 

To be honest, you were expecting the interior of the Spire to be just as white as the exterior. But this room is decorated like an ancient palace! It’s cylindrical, about fifty metres across, and the ceiling is so high up that it can’t be seen; the walls eventually drift off into a pink haze, like the welcoming light of dusk. It is lined with white columns, grooved, ornately decorated with murals of dragons, made of ruby and jade. The floor on the edge of the room slopes down to a flat area covered by a smooth red carpet. The real centrepiece of the room floats above the centre of carpet, ten metres in the air.

 

**ASTRAH: lame. wh-o- left a giant d20 fl-o-ating in the middle -o-f the spire?**

 

As much as you hate to agree with her, it does look like a giant d20. The faces of the large, black, slowly rotating icosahedron are each about as wide as your head (clown blobs included), and each face ripples slightly, like a liquid metal, or the Spire after it wallgulps someone.

 

**EXANDA: good! th^s ^s exactly l^ke what ^ read!**

 

You turn to gaze down at Exanda, with his lusus perched on his shoulder. You try to smile in an encouraging way, but instantly a flash of fear passes across his face. Another failure.

 

**DREKUL: Please explain.**

**EXANDA: uhh, um, well..**

**EXANDA: the records ^ looked at before we came here conf^rmed that all of the past explorers f^rst entered th^s room.**

**EXANDA: that float^ng shape doesn’t do anyth^ng.**

**EXANDA: we can press on past th^s room to another chamber.**

**DREKUL: Wonderful. Would you be willing to wayfind for us?**

**EXANDA: ^’ll, um, try.**

 

He leads you around the edge of the room, a shadowed space behind the ornate columns. After glancing back and smiling, your friends start following as well. Astrah eventually notices where you’re going and trudges after you.

 

Though you’re not a Waste Zoner like most of your party, you have heard tell of the dangers of the Spire. You could write MACABRE POETRY about the various scrapes and misfortunes explorers and treasure hunters have met on its first floor. Traps, feral animals, wildlings and a dizzying maze of unparalleled complexity, fit to tear the unwary intruder to shreds. Oh, how it tickles your fancy.

 

**PREEDO: rrExanda, how much do you know about the Spire?rr**

**DREKUL: Here, has someone not studied?**

**PREEDO: rrWell, no, not exactlyrr**

**DREKUL: As I anticipated, Preedo.**

**DREKUL: Reading is really challenging, correct?**

**EXANDA: hey, ^ wanna talk!**

 

Huh. You suppose you’d better let Exanda explain. Of course, you have no idea what Preedo’s going to get out of it. He only likes to punch, and that’s all you ask of him to do. You attempt an appeasing gesture of permittance at Exanda as the two of you lock eyes while walking.

 

**DREKUL: Please proceed.**

**PREEDO: rrYes, pleaserr**

**EXANDA: okay… uh, thanks.**

**EXANDA: SO! on th^s level of the sp^re ^s a clan of w^ldl^ngs w^th no lus^^.**

**EXANDA: normally, trolls who ex^t the caverns w^th no lus^^ are culled.**

**ASTRAH: -o-r tr-o-lls wh-o- l-o-se their lusii, right?**

**EXANDA: yep! but s^nce the sp^re ^s k^nd of a labyr^nth and no one ^n power pays attent^on to ^t, these guys have flown under the radar.**

**PREEDO: rrWhats a “labby-rinth”?rr**

 

Jesus, this guy. At least he’s trying, you suppose.

 

**EXANDA: a maze, a place that’s confus^ng, hard to get out of.**

**PREEDO: rrI seerr**

 

Preedo nods and Exanda seems pleased. Parchi pipes up from the back suddenly.

 

**PARCHI: #I WANNA MEET SOME WILDLINGS!#**

**PARCHI: #T#EY SOUND REALLY COOL!#**

**EXANDA: not these ones!**

**ASTRAH: why n-o-t?**

**EXANDA: well, uh, ^t’s been recorded that, ummm… they’re not… fr^endly?**

**PARCHI: #I GUESS I’LL JUST #AVE TO NOT BE FRIENDLY, T#EN#**

 

She cracks her knuckles and makes some sparks come off of her horns. Out of all of the people in your party, you would reckon Parchi has the best chance of survival in the Spire at first glance. But from what you know about her life, you know she has too many burdens to make it on her own.

 

Exanda runs ahead and gestures for a stop. You in turn raise your hand and snap your fingers, causing the others to stop marvelling at the intricate decoration and the floating artefact. Astrah leans against a nearby pillar, Preedo bends over to look down inquisitively, and Exanda dashes to inspect the far wall.

 

**EXANDA: th^s should be the spot!**

**DREKUL: Oh? How have you arrived at this assertion?**

 

He points to the pillar Astrah is leaning against, causing Astrah to jump. He cringes, and instead moves his pointing finger upwards. You follow his point, and so does everyone else. There’s a massive crack in the pillar; a tight, dark, cleanly circular hole with many fractures radiating out from its circumference.

 

**EXANDA: ^t ^s sa^d that a powerful ps^on^c marked th^s p^llar so others would know how to pass deeper ^nto the sp^re.**

**EXANDA: the secret door ^s supposed to be d^rectly ^n front of the mark!**

 

He walks up to the wall, and, while everyone collectively holds their breaths, tentatively places his palm to the wall. Nothing happens. Then, after a few seconds, there is a continued lack of something.

 

**EXANDA: …maybe ^t’s a “do not push” door, haha!**

 

He scrabbles around, looking for some crack in the wall that would betray the presence of a handle or lever. Nothing turns up: you can see his fingers pressing against the hard surface, contorting to an almost painful level. His lusus remains precariously perched on his shoulder.

 

**ASTRAH: what the hell kinda rec-o-rds tell y-o-u where the d-o-o-r is but n-o-t h-o-w t-o- -o-pen it?**

**EXANDA: perhaps, uhh, ^… d^dn’t pay close enough attent^on.**

**PREEDO: rrYou know thats impossible, Exandarr**

**PREEDO: rrNo one here can accuse you of not readingrr**

**EXANDA: thanks, preedo! 8D**

 

As Exanda scrabbles for purchase with increasing desperation, something catches your eye. The bristlebeast, while Exanda searches, is being shook off his body. You can see its own little paws scrabbling for purchase in its environment. You don’t think anybody else has noticed. However, before you can react, Exanda’s poor dad falls right off his shoulder and onto its back!

 

**EXANDA: oh crap! dad!**

 

Exanda bends down to scoop up his dad, but as his hands come close to the creature, rears back and yells. Everyone takes a step back. You can see that he’s jabbed the palm of his hand on one of his dad’s spines: as he clasps his hands together, you see a drop of brown blood fall onto the floor.

 

**PREEDO: rrGet back, Exanda!rr**

 

Preedo stomps forward and summons his violence mittens. He bends down and gingerly picks up the very distressed lusus, curving his fingers to grip the animal’s underbelly. You witness with morbid fascination as one of the spines makes a tiny cut into the metal palm of Preedo’s left gauntlet when dad squirms a little.

 

==-> Drekul: Sort this out.

 

You’re an UNMURDERER. This is a term you’ve coined for yourself: a doctor who heals those who are even past the point that a normal physician would cull them on sight. A little cut is nothing for you.

 

**DREKUL: Preedo, I require your keys!**

After gingerly placing Bristledad (a name you’ve decided on for Exanda’s lusus) back on the floor, he hastily hands you the keys. You jangle them and Purrseus bounds over. You feel the various bags he’s carrying before finding the one you need. You try to open the knot, but… it’s a fiddly one… the loops aren’t coming undone… look, you’re bad at knots.

 

**DREKUL: Astrah! Help here!**

**ASTRAH: -o-n it**

 

Without another word, she psychics the knot apart. The now-loose string slips onto the floor. From within the bag, you produce your medical equipment: a small box of sterile pads, some gauze and a bottle of saline solution. The transparent pads, with a white, sticky square in the middle, are slightly green, on account of the healing sopor slime extract held within the plastic. You slice off a bit of the gauze with your saw, dip it in the solution and grab at Exanda’s hand so you can see it. With care, despite his yelps of protest, you clean the blood off before sticking the pad to the wound.

 

**DREKUL: Feeling finer? Less fell?**

**EXANDA: …uhh, ^ th^nk so…**

**DREKUL: Yes or no?**

**EXANDA: yes!**

**DREKUL: Thank you.**

 

 You pull Exanda up to his feet by his uninjured hand. Exanda dusts himself off and shuffles over to Preedo, who’s squatted down, watching Bristledad. Turning, you see Astrah over by Preedo’s side. She’s using her psionics to re-tie the knot.

 

**DREKUL: Allow me to take the tie!**

**ASTRAH: d-o-n’t get y-o-ur -o-versized cl-o-wn pants in a twist**

**ASTRAH: this new kn-o-t sh-o-uld be easy en-o-ugh f-o-r even y-o-ur massive fl-o-ppy fingers t-o- handle**

 

She gives you a thumbs up and you return a deadpan stare. Exanda takes Bristledad and nestles it back onto Exanda’s shoulder. Parchi exclaims behind you.

 

**PARCHI: #WOA#!#**

**ASTRAH: what is it?**

**PARCHI: #EXANDA’S BLOOD!#**

 

Exanda jerks around to gaze at the floor, Preedo stands up and Astrah and yourself also turn to have a look. A few drops of his blood had fallen to the floor, but the brown bloodstain is rapidly shrinking before all of your eyes. In just a second, it is completely gone.

 

**PARCHI: #COOL!#**

**EXANDA: my blood!**

**PREEDO: rrSweet purrciful Godrr**

**PREEDO: rrDo you know what this means?rr**

**EXANDA: no???**

**PREEDO: rrThe spire is glowing whiterr**

**PREEDO: rrIt drank your blood just now, Exandarr**

**PREEDO: rrTHE SPIRE IS A RAINBOW DRINKER!!!rr**

 

Exanda facepalms. You take a second to try and compose yourself and fail miserably. Surrendering your dignity to the Messiahs, you begin to laugh uproariously while Preedo clutches his head with both hands in real, abject horror.

 

**DREKUL: NYARHAHAHAAA HEEHEEHEE!!!**

**PARCHI: #PREEDO#**

**PARCHI: #T#AT’S STUPID#**

**DREKUL: HEEHEEHOHOHOHO!!!**

**ASTRAH: drekul shut the fuck up!**

 

With your laughter devolving into hacking coughs and your eyes filling up with tears, you do your best to stifle your fit of mirth. The end result is you standing with your cheeks blown up like two chalky balloons while salty rivers ruin your makeup.

 

**PREEDO: rrIm not stupid!rr**

**PREEDO: rrExanda, weve gotta go! It might have a taste for olive!rr**

**EXANDA: preedo.**

**EXANDA: PLEASE let me expla^n someth^ng to you.**

 

Exanda tries desperately to reach Preedo’s head to get Preedo to look at him, but gives up and instead grips and pulls on his wrist. Preedo stares with wide and fearful eyes into Exanda’s face.

 

**EXANDA: what ^s a ra^nbow dr^nker?**

**PREEDO: rrSomething undead that glows white and drinks the blood of trolls!rr**

**EXANDA: preedo, only jadebloods can be ra^nbow dr^nkers.**

**EXANDA: the sp^re ^s ne^ther undead nor a jadeblood.**

**PREEDO: rrUh huh… okay…rr**

**EXANDA: so, log^cally…**

**PREEDO: rrThe Spire is not a rainbow drinkerrr**

**EXANDA: very good!**

 

Preedo’s nervous expression gives way to a timid, shaky smile and a nod of understanding. Then he exhales and straightens up. Preedo looks at you, makes an angry face and shakes his head, but honestly, you just couldn’t control yourself. You make a mental note to be extra nice to Preedo just in case he decides to smack your thinkpan off of your body.

 

**ASTRAH: -o-kay every-o-ne**

**ASTRAH: i hate t-o- interrupt this very weird m-o-ment**

**ASTRAH: but s-o-mething’s happening behind y-o-u, preed-o-**

**PREEDO: rrHuh?rr**

**PARCHI: #T#AT’S AMAZING. I T#OUG#T NOT#ING WOULD EVER #APPEN AGAIN#**

 

Astrah pushes herself up from the wall, her eyes fixed on a point obscured by Preedo’s body. He turns around and steps to the side, allowing you to see what she was talking about. Everyone else also starts looking in that direction.

 

On the wall facing the next pillar past the marked one, a gap is inching its way up towards the ceiling. After travelling about two metres upwards, the thin, black line veers sharply to the right, and then after about half a metre makes another right and travels towards the floor. It looks less like the wall is being cut, or machinery is splitting the surface, but more like the wall itself is simply being erased or overwritten. After the line reaches the floor again, the new, outline rectangle of wall pulses and begins to ripple like the floating artefact in the centre of the room.

 

**EXANDA: that’s not where the door’s meant to be…**

**DREKUL: You believe that’s the belated birth of our opening?**

**EXANDA: MAYBE???**

**ASTRAH: l-o-o-k here, exanda**

 

Exanda starts and turns to face Astrah. She bends down to look him in the eyes.

 

**ASTRAH: it’s n-o-t great being wr-o-ng**

**ASTRAH: and certainly n-o-t great being stabbed**

**ASTRAH: i’m sure every-o-ne here understands**

**ASTRAH: but we’re in uncharted waters, in a danger-o-us place**

**ASTRAH: and we need y-o-u to be smart instead -o-f super freaked -o-ut**

**ASTRAH: wh-o- kn-o-ws, the spire wanted us t-o- c-o-me, s-o- maybe s-o-me things will be different f-o-r us**

**ASTRAH: just keep y-o-ur thinkpan screwed -o-n… please**

**EXANDA: ^…**

**EXANDA: okay!**

 

Exanda nods with a fierce smile of determination on his face. He sprints over to the door.

 

**EXANDA: best to probe th^s new stuff, then!**

**EXANDA: we could be the f^rst people ever to see th^s!**

**EXANDA: astrah, parch^, preedo, ^’ll need all of you for th^s**

**PARCHI: #OKAY#**

**PREEDO: rrReady!rr**

**ASTRAH: sure!**

**DREKUL: I’ll sit this circumstance out.**

**ASTRAH: thank g-o-d**

You watch as Parchi, Exanda, Preedo and Astrah all stand in front of the rippling surface.

 

**EXANDA: astrah, can you ps^on^cally probe th^s sect^on of wall f^rst?**

**ASTRAH: what f-o-r?**

**EXANDA: see ^f there’s anyth^ng past ^t, then ^f there ^s, please try and scan for, um, bad stuff.**

**ASTRAH: alright** **…**

Her body emanates white light as the stream of misty fluid from beneath her eyepatch increases in volume. You remember the night you gave her that wound. You broke about three laws saving her from her hive on that dreadful night, but it was worth it. Astrah is your foil and your opposite, and you need her. If only to make yourself look superior.

 

**ASTRAH: can’t determine anything, s-o-rry exanda**

**ASTRAH: can’t get a fix -o-n anything -o-n the -o-ther side, if there IS an “-o-ther side” at all**

**ASTRAH: it’s like its specifically bl-o-cking me…**

**EXANDA: ^, ^, umm, don’t apolog^se!**

**EXANDA: parch^? could you try?**

**PARCHI: #EXANDA, I DON’T KNOW #OW TO “SCAN”#**

**PARCHI: #I CAN FIRE BOLTS OF BRAIN ENERGY AND T#ROW S#IT AND T#AT’S IT#**

**PARCHI: ##EY T#AT R#YMED! SUCK IT DREKUL, I’M T#E NEW POET#**

**EXANDA: would you m^nd f^r^ng a bolt of bra^n energy?**

**PARCHI: #*CRACKS KNUCKLES*#**

**PARCHI: #AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA#**

 

There is an explosion of light and noise as Parchi fires off a blast of arcing electricity into the surface. You can’t really tell what’s happening, but it looks like the wall is soaking up the energy, and it is having little effect; the flow of the liquid is only slightly disturbed. After a few seconds, the flow of electricity stops. It occurs to you that the rippling might be because of air currents passing through the “wall”.

 

**PARCHI: ##UFF, #UFF#**

**PARCHI: #WELL, T#E LIG#TNING #IT SOMET#ING#**

**EXANDA: how do you know? you sa^d you couldn’t do scans.**

**PARCHI: #I CAN’T, REALLY. NOT T#E WAY ASTRA# DOES T#EM#**

**PARCHI: #I CAN TELL THE DISTANCE TO T#E T#ING I #IT BY T#E AMOUNT OF EFFORT I #AVE TO PUT IN FOR MY LIG#TNING TO REAC# IT#**

**PARCHI: #I WASN’T JUST #ITTING T#E WALL IN FRONT OF ME#**

**PARCHI: #T#AT’S A DOORWAY AND IT LEADS INTO A SPACE ABOUT TEN METRES LONG#**

**EXANDA: br^ll^ant!**

**EXANDA: now, preedo, ^ have to ask you someth^ng**

 

Preedo stands before the wall and turns to face Exanda.

 

**PREEDO: rrYes?rr**

**EXANDA: preedo, you’re the strongest and bravest one of us.**

**EXANDA: would you do us the honour of go^ng ahead?**

**PREEDO: rrOkay, I-**

 

==-> Drekul: Interfere.

**DREKUL: I’m going to grind these happenings to a halt here.**

 

You come over, maintaining a good distance from everyone else while giving Exanda a blank look.

 

**DREKUL: There could be cruelties past this portal.**

**DREKUL: Preedo could be crushed, cooked or mashed into mince in not many microns.**

**EXANDA: but drekul, um, why would that happen?**

**DREKUL: This could be an evaluation of our exploration expertise. If we fail, we fall.**

**DREKUL: There is an alternative to addressing Preedo to the other side of the oddity.**

**ASTRAH: what is it?**

**DREKUL: Deliver Dirtfang. If she sheds her soul, you, Astrah, can awaken her after. If she doesn’t, then we can continue.**

 

Preedo looks down at Exanda.

 

**PREEDO: rrI do like this better. I dont want to dierr**

**DREKUL: Exanda? Are you agreeing?**

**EXANDA: ^, um, suppose so. ^t sounds smart.**

**PARCHI: #I’M FOR IT TOO#**

**PARCHI: #WE DON’T NEED TO PUT LONG STACK IN DANGER#**

 

You feel quite pleased with yourself. You suspect a secret reason for their support is that none of your friends like Dirtfang and would very much like to see her destroyed. Not only is she creepy, but they all know what she was like in life thanks to one of Exanda’s books.

 

**ASTRAH: the plan makes sense**

**ASTRAH: but y-o-u all kn-o-w why i want t-o- keep her alive**

**ASTRAH: i can’t reach bey-o-nd that wall with my p-o-wers**

**ASTRAH: what if she dies and the spire rem-o-ves her b-o-dy, like it did with exanda’s bl-o-o-d?**

**ASTRAH: she’d get away with everything she did AGAIN!**

 

You have the perfect comeback ready. Black flame burns within your heart and venom dribbles into your voice.

 

**DREKUL: Who would you prefer to preserve? Your friends or a fiend like her?**

 

You grin in your victory over her. She gives you a long, hard look, betraying no emotion. She had her moment of weakness from you when you needed her earlier, and here’s your revenge. Finally, she stomps up to you and jabs a finger into your chest, her expression contorting into a snarl of rage.

 

**ASTRAH: FUCK. Y-O-U.**

 

She removes herself from your space and takes off her backpack, shaking Dirtfang’s bones out onto the ground. Then, she begins using her powers. The bones glow and begin assembling themselves into the resemblance of a complete skeleton, standing upright. Once the body is completed, Dirtfang’s phantasmal, corpse-like flesh and skin flicker into existence piece-by-piece, like TV static clearing. Last to appear are her misty white eyes.

 

**DIRTFANG: Urrrghh… I feel terri8le… like I don’t have any skin or something…**

**ASTRAH: g-o-o-d, because that’s exactly y-o-ur pr-o-blem**

**DIRTFANG: Oh, it’s _you_.**

**DIRTFANG: My 8oundless disappointment and continued enragement cannot 8e overstated.**

**ASTRAH: yeah, yeah, shut up**

**ASTRAH: walk thr-o-ugh this wavy wall and i’ll let y-o-u be g-o-o-d and unenraged f-o-r an-o-ther few h-o-urs**

 

Dirtfang stomps over to the “wavy wall”, muttering obscenities and flexing the fingers on her one hand. Without hesitating she makes contact and vanishes. You stumble upon a curious conundrum, suddenly.

 

**DREKUL: Wait, if her disappointment is “boundless”, how could it be overstated? It is already amplified to the most major modality!**

**ASTRAH: bah, wh-o- kn-o-ws**

**DREKUL: +:(**

 

Some would consider you a Grammar Legislacerator, but all in all you just appreciate good use of language.

 

Everyone waits for a sign that Dirtfang survived. Exanda, Preedo and Astrah stare goggle-eyed at the door with bated breath while Parchi just kind of hangs around, kicking the floor. You all wait for a little more before you, defeated, speak up.

 

**DREKUL: This was a stupid strategy. We cannot confirm if she is still in a suitably stable and strong state.**

**ASTRAH: yeah**

**PREEDO: rrIll go if you need me torr**

**EXANDA: wa^t!**

**EXANDA: you’re got the r^ght ^dea choos^ng to go through.**

**EXANDA: you’re the most l^kely to surv^ve anyth^ng on the other s^de of that wall.**

**EXANDA: but before you go ^ have an ^dea!**

 

Exanda moves over to Purrseus and, to your slight chagrin, undoes the knot instantly. He pulls out a spool of rope, obtained from Parchi’s hive.

 

**EXANDA: hey, umm… drekul?**

**DREKUL: Yes?**

**EXANDA: ^… need you to help me cut the rope to a certa^n length.**

 

You summon your saw and walk over to Exanda, leaning over to observe him measure out rope. He ponders for a few moments, his hand on his chin and his brow furrowed in concentration, before looking up at you. He jumps in fright upon seeing how close you are to him (you didn’t think it was an issue), but then gives you a shaky thumbs up, patting the part of the rope he wants you to cut. Not changing your expression from your previous calm smile, you slice the rope easily. Exanda then moves over to Preedo and ties the rope around the bigger troll’s waist.

 

**EXANDA: okay, ^’m not that strong, so ^’ll need everyone to help me ^f preedo needs to be pulled out.**

**PARCHI: #OKAY!#**

**ASTRAH: i’ll d-o- it!**

**DREKUL: I’ll assist.**

**PREEDO: rrThank you everyonerr**

 

Exanda secures the rope. Parchi jumps in behind him, Astrah grips the rope, pulling it up to her shoulder height and lifting the other two awkwardly for a moment, and you take hold of the end with both of your hands like you’re about to throw the hammer.

 

**ASTRAH: -o-kay preed-o-**

**ASTRAH: we’re right behind y-o-u**

**PARCHI: #IF YOU NEED US, I DUNNO, PULL T#E ROPE T#REE TIMES OR SOMET#ING#**

**PREEDO: rrWorks for merr**

**PREEDO: rrOkay…rr**

 

He jogs in place for a second and bangs his gauntlets together.

 

**PREEDO: rrLet’s go!rr**

 

He runs through and then the world instantly goes back the second he touches the wall. After the single moment of unreal darkness, you’re all on the other side of the wall. Preedo’s frozen in place, one foot in the air, and everyone behind him still delicately holds the rope in a way that radiates palpable embarrassment.

 

**DREKUL: I think we definitely disregarded an aspect of these apertures.**

**ASTRAH: which -o-ne?**

**DREKUL: Clearly, they clear for coming in anything attached to the item that makes contact.**

**EXANDA: l^ke how ^t ^nstantly wallgulped us when we touched ^t outs^de?**

**DREKUL: Precisely.**

**PARCHI: #…#**

**PARCHI: #I’M GONNA BE #ONEST, I FEEL REALLY DUMB#**

**PREEDO: rrHey! We arent dead! At least… I think so…rr**

**ASTRAH: i supp-o-se n-o-t being dead is all we can h-o-pe f-o-r**

**EXANDA: now we’re somewhere new!**

**PARCHI: #MAYBE IT’S T#E AFTERLIFE!#**

 

All of you are now standing in a corridor, seemingly ten metres long and two across with walls about five metres high. As Preedo pats himself down, checking for signs that he’s dead, you step forward to get a better look at your surroundings. The floor is covered with a red carpet, just like the massive entrance hall, though this carpet looks frayed and even like it’s been ripped apart in some places. The walls are mostly white and blank, though a mural of a golden serpent with red swirls on its cheeks slithers along the walls, with the serpent’s progress stopping at the head and then restarting in a way that places the next serpent’s tail behind the head of the previous. There is no roof to the corridor: looking up, you see nothing but that same pink haze that demonstrates distance incalculable, except when you catch a glimpse of the massive white tube behind you that contains the entrance hall.

 

The corridor makes a sharp left turn at the far end, the opposite end to the entrance. Dirtfang is nowhere in sight. You plan on asking Astrah about her when Exanda pipes up, sounding dejected.

 

**EXANDA: hoo boy, okay, th^s ^s wrong too.**

**DREKUL: Oh?**

**EXANDA: all other records state that an explorer would emerge from the entrance hall ^nto a _roofed_ corr^dor, that would branch off ^nto a whole ser^es of ^dent^cal corr^dors.**

**EXANDA: also, the serpent murals are supposed to have _green_ cheek sw^rls.**

**EXANDA: th^ngs aren’t mak^ng much sense…**

**DREKUL: Well, Exanda, in this contemporary case, I predicate that we…**

 

Something stops you dead in your tracks. The wall at the opposite end of the corridor is rippling violently. You get a feeling in your acid tubes that something is about to come through to face you. An odd, distorted voice sounding rather like gurgling magma, impossible to determine as male or female, begins to emanate from the walls themselves, stunning you and your party into confused, goggle-eyed disarray.

 

**??????: Well, well, well. Things aren’t making sense to you, Exanda Demics?**

**EXANDA: what-**

**ASTRAH: what the fuck?!**

**EXANDA: …yeah, that.**

**DREKUL: Who are you?!**

**PARCHI: #S#OW YOURSELF, MOT#ERFUCKER!#**

 

Something indistinct wobbles its way into the corridor out of the wall, like the reverse of a droplet of water falling into a pond; the ripples form the massive, dark object.

 

It’s the same as the giant d20 from the entrance hall, except that it’s been shrunk down to about the size of your head. Once it emerges fully and the wall stops its liquid motions, the object zooms over to float in front of you, just above the height of Preedo, not making any noise as it moves. Its surface still ripples, far more erratically than before, forming massive spikes that collapse back into its surface after about a second. One of the faces stops moving and changes to a bright, luminescent blue.

 

**??????: Trust me, buddy. Nothing you’ve got out of any of your books are going to help you in my Spire.**

 

Now, the voice is solely coming out of the object, though it is no less oozy or artificial and remains utterly unlike a troll’s.

 

**??????: My name is JUDGMENT.**

**JUDGMENT: I’m the keeper of the Spirograph Spire. I will be the monitor of your progress.**

**JUDGMENT: You’d better get used to me!**

**ASTRAH: …exanda, f-o-r the l-o-ve -o-f g-o-d, tell me this thing is in y-o-ur b-o-o-ks**

**EXANDA: sorry… no d^ce.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time, we track down Dirtfang.


	7. The Guide and the Gambler (Pt. 1)

**DREKUL: Come on! Exanda, that pun was putrid!**

**EXANDA: what pun?**

**DREKUL: No dice? d20??**

**DREKUL: URRRGH.**

 

What a shame, you really had hope for him. Anyway, you’ve got a bizarre, condescending robot staring you down (at least, you think it’s staring at you) and a bunch of confused companions to lead.

 

What will you do?

 

==-> Drekul: Make introductions.

 

You give a deep, calming sigh and turn a mask of vague intrigue to the Judgment thing. You plan on introducing yourself and your friends to it, mostly to test how much it knows (it knew Exanda’s name right away). You with a flourish of the hand, you prepare to speak. The thing doesn’t visibly react.

 

**DREKUL: G-**

**JUDGMENT: You’re Drekul Hiryde, 7.43 sweeps of age, a purpleblood with the sign of the Taskmaster and a thalassic frondwyrm for a lusus.**

**JUDGMENT: Your hive is located on the outskirts of the major metropolitan centre Slaughter City, not far from this region.**

**JUDGMENT: You will live a dreadful and unfulfilling life and die alone and forgotten.**

**JUDGMENT: Would you like to know more?**

 

You fucking hate this thing already but make an effort (of the magnitude usually reserved for ripping concrete apart) to remain calm and impassive. Through clenched teeth and a fixed smile, you reply.

 

**DREKUL: _I would not._**

**JUDGMENT: I knew you would say that.**

**JUDGMENT: Anybody else want to know things?**

**PARCHI: #NO T#ANKS#**

**ASTRAH: as fun as watching drekul get r-o-asted is, i’d rather n-o-t be -o-n the receiving end of y-o-ur analysis**

**JUDGMENT: Understandable!**

**JUDGMENT: _ButI’mgonnadoitanyway_!**

**JUDGMENT: You’re Astrah Mitium, 6.59 sweeps of age, a rustblood with the sign of the Wayward and while your current lusus is a troll formerly you had a-**

**ASTRAH: that’s en-o-ugh!**

 

Judgment whizzes around the air, occasionally touching the walls and floor with the spikes that rise up from its surface and then collapse. Once, it prods Preedo in the chest with the spike, and a shiver runs throughout his body before he lurches back, the machine not even noticing as it surveys the party.

 

**JUDGMENT: Wow. My knowledge of continuity is perfect, but I still hoped that you would have been a little stronger before you entered my home.**

**PREEDO: rrYour home?rr**

**JUDGMENT: Yes! The Spirograph Spire is my domain.**

**EXANDA: are you the one that’s mak^ng th^ngs d^fferent for us?**

**JUDGMENT: Yes, to that as well.**

**JUDGMENT: You need a challenge, after all! You can’t just crawl in here expecting limitless power without having to _work_ for it first!**

Is it… insulting your intelligence? Does it honestly think that you and your friends didn’t know that the Spire was going to be a challenge?

**DREKUL: Come on, we comprehended that this place would present perils to us preceding our presentation into its interior.**

**DREKUL: We’re not numbpans! (Well, except for Astrah).**

**ASTRAH: whatever y-o-u say, bluntclaws mccan’ttiekn-o-ts**

 

You shoot her a mean look, and she rolls her eyes in response. Judgment doesn’t seem like it cares.

 

**JUDGMENT: The Spire is my game, and no one who’s entered before you ever began to play.**

**JUDGMENT: You guys, your lusii and that… old thing you brought in with you will be the first.**

**ASTRAH: hey wait**

**ASTRAH: “-o-ld thing”? y-o-u mean dirtfang, right?**

**JUDGMENT: I mean Marquise Spinneret _Mind_ fang. I am aware, however, that we’re talking about the same person.**

**ASTRAH: she’s dirtfang n-o-w**

**ASTRAH: where is she? she went in ahead -o-f us**

**JUDGMENT: She’s twisting and turning through my halls, obviously gleeful to be free of your company.**

**JUDGMENT: I think she’s planning something.**

**ASTRAH: we can’t have that**

 

She turns around and makes a beckoning gesture at the group.

 

**ASTRAH: we have t-o- g-o- f-o-rward n-o-w t-o- catch up with her-**

 

Oh no, she’s pretending to be a leader again. Immediately you throw up a hand in front of her face.

 

**DREKUL: _I_ decide when we walk on!**

**DREKUL: Anyway, we have to detect and detain Dirtfang before she breaks away from us for aye!**

**ASTRAH: what d-o-es that even MEAN?!**

**ASTRAH: and that’s MY plan!**

**JUDGMENT: Don’t be offended, Astrah.**

**JUDGMENT: Your little enemy is just having a tiny crisis of ego, that’s all!**

 

You dial up the saccharine malice as you whip around to gaze at Judgment again.

 

**DREKUL: _Be quiet._**

**JUDGMENT: _No~_!**

 

Its rebuttal makes you want to rip the whole Spire down brick-by-brick and piss on the ruins, but after a moment of transitioning from a twitchy-eyed manic smile to your normal pensive expression, you realise that you’re just not going to win against Judgment in a battle of passive aggressiveness. Only by besting the Spire will you truly beat the stupid thing.

 

**PARCHI: #OKAY, RAGING MORON CREW, I #ATE TO INTERRUPT#**

**PARCHI: #BUT WE NEED TO GET T#IS CRAZY TRAIN MOVING AGAIN#**

**PARCHI: #S#ITTY ROBOT!#**

**JUDGMENT: Parchi Valruz! Want to get roasted as well?**

**PARCHI: #NO, FUCK OFF!#**

 

Parchi has marched forward with her hands on her hips and clearly expects to have the time of her life talking to the machine, judging by her impish grin returning in full force. Judgment is as visually unreadable as ever but expresses amusement, in a gentler tone.

 

**JUDGMENT: Okay! What can I do for you, my little demilady?**

**PARCHI: #W#AT’S YOUR FUNCTION #ERE IN T#E SPIRE?#**

**DREKUL: It’s obviously to obstruct and annoy…**

**JUDGMENT: Not exactly, but that could be considered my secondary purpose.**

**PARCHI: #W#AT’S PRIMARY?#**

**JUDGMENT: My actual function is to be the Spire’s hint system, so to speak, and to provide some services and assistance.**

**PARCHI: #GOOD! VERY GOOD! YOU WILL #ELP US FIND DIRTFANG!#**

**JUDGMENT: If you insist. To me, she seems like a major hindrance, but I live to serve.**

**JUDGMENT: Follow!**

 

It rotates 180 degrees (you don’t doubt that it can still see you all, though) and floats off at a walking pace, occasionally stroking the wall or the ground with a spike. Preedo shrugs.

 

**PREEDO: rrI dont see why we shouldnt listen to itrr**

**EXANDA: what do you mean?**

**PREEDO: rrObviously, this is our mentorrr**

**PREEDO: rrWere the heroes, Exanda. The heroes always meet with a mentor who helps them face the unknownrr**

**EXANDA: oh, of course! the hero’s journey!**

**DREKUL: That’s storybook stuff, silly!**

**PREEDO: rrWere all part of an honest-to-God ancient prophecy, Drekulrr**

**PREEDO: rrIt seems to me that “storybook stuff” is our new reality, Drekulrr**

**ASTRAH: whatever! c-o-me -o-n, we’ve g-o-t t-o- track d-o-wn dirtfang!**

 

Astrah sprints off.

 

**DREKUL: No, NO! I’M still the survey’s supervisor!**

 

While you chase after Astrah, your friends follow behind.

 

==-> Be Preedo.

 

You are now Preedo, and Drekul stumbling after Astrah and Judgment with his breast thoroughly emptied of pride is a very welcome sight. The guy never gives you a Goddamn break and ignores Exanda and sometimes you just want to throttle him! Your mighty fists are clenched.

 

==-> Preedo: Just keep on keepin’ on, big guy.

 

You give a heavy sigh and assume a stoic expression, relaxing your hands. You begin to stomp after Astrah, watching Drekul catch up to her and be met with a disgruntled eye-roll while Judgment floats on impassively. Your two smaller friends start to follow you.

 

As you ponder your surroundings, terrible fear suddenly flashes into your mind like lightning. You whip around to look behind you and then in front of you again.

 

**PREEDO: rrOh no!rr**

**PARCHI: #W#AT?#**

**EXANDA: preedo?**

**PREEDO: rrPurrseus! I cant see him anywhere!rr**

 

==-> Preedo: Go back.

 

He must still be in the entrance hall. You dash back to the rippling wall, your feet pounding against the floor, until you’re right in front of it. It stops rippling and assumes an entirely solid appearance. Confused and panicked, you thrust your hand out to meet the surface and nothing happens. You try again and again as Exanda and Parchi watch. Anger wells up inside you and you furiously strike the wall, only to double back as pain shoots up your arm.

 

**PREEDO: rrARRGH! Damnit!rr**

**PREEDO: rrGuys, how am I gonna get back to him?rr**

**PARCHI: #CALL JUDGMENT!#**

**PREEDO: rrOh, right!rr**

**PREEDO: rrJUDGMENT!rr**

**JUDGMENT: Yes?**

 

Shortly after your bellow finishes echoing throughout the halls, Judgment materialises. There’s an incoherent yell of surprise from deeper in the Spire. The Judgment they were following has vanished, and they turn around to look at you.

 

**PREEDO: rrI have to get to Purrseus!rr**

**JUDGMENT: Oh? You left him in there?**

**PREEDO: rrNot by choice! You distracted me!rr**

**JUDGMENT: Hahahahaha!**

 

Judgment pokes you again with a suddenly manifested spike, causing you to double back. You feel gross whenever it does that.

 

**JUDGMENT: Wait right here, Preedo…**

**JUDGMENT: …**

**PREEDO: rrWhat are you doing?rr**

**JUDGMENT: Quiet!**

**JUDGMENT: …**

**JUDGMENT: Done! Purrseus is no longer in that room.**

**JUDGMENT: A good thing too. He seemed lonely.**

**PREEDO: rrWhered you put him?rr**

**JUDGMENT: I’ve moved him to a location secured from the wildlings infesting this level.**

**JUDGMENT: You’ll find him if you follow the same course as Astrah and the loser.**

**PREEDO: rrWhy didnt you just let me see him?!rr**

You start getting angry and it pokes you again, causing you to grimace and take another step backwards.

 

**JUDGMENT: I’ll do whatever necessitates progression, _Bastet_. It’s my job.**

**JUDGMENT: Just move on and everything will come to you eventually.**

**JUDGMENT: And make sure to wrangle Dirtfang before she breaks something.**

 

The Judgment that was talking to you joins with the wall again, while the other up ahead reappears and resumes its course. Throwing your hands up in the air, you grunt in frustration, before you look down at Exanda and make sure to soften your expression.

 

==-> Preedo: Catch up.

 

To keep pace with Astrah and Drekul, you pick Exanda up and put him on your shoulders and start to speedwalk. Parchi keeps pace with cartoonishly long strides, throwing her arms around like windmills. Eventually you catch up and begin winding your way through the halls of the Spire. Judgment guides you down corridors and through innumerable intersections. Exanda remains watchful; you can feel him twisting around on top of you, looking around for wildlings, no doubt. You don’t think that they could take you on in a straight fight, but Exanda has the right idea in looking out for a surprise attack. The Spire is too quiet for your liking, setting you on edge. But soon you sense a far-off sound.

 

**PREEDO: rrHey guys, you hear that?rr**

**DREKUL: What?**

**EXANDA: water!**

 

No doubt, Exanda’s Waste Zoner senses had picked it up as well. You instinctively turn towards the source of the sound, but of course you can’t see anything because of the wall. Exanda probably could, however.

 

**PREEDO: rrExanda, what do you see?rr**

**EXANDA: ^ see a curta^n of water fall^ng from really far up… the stream just d^sappers ^nto the haze.**

**PARCHI: #WE MUST BE CLOSE TO T#E WILDLINGS#**

**PREEDO: rrYeah, youre probably rightrr**

**DREKUL: What assures you all so significantly?**

**PREEDO: rrEveryone needs a water source, Drekulrr**

**DREKUL: Oh, of course.**

**DREKUL: In this instance, we should preferably proceed with prudence to avoid an unnecessary unpleasantness.**

**PARCHI: #AGREED#**

**PARCHI: #AS MUC# AS I’D LIKE TO MAKE T#E ACQUAINTANCE OF MY FELLOW SAVAGES#**

**PARCHI: #T#ERE’S NO DENYING T#AT T#EY’RE PROBABLY NOT FRIENDLY#**

**DREKUL: Okay, from this fulcrum, we shall-**

**EXANDA: wa^t, drekul, shush!**

Exanda’s sudden statement coupled with him going rigid around your neck almost causes you to drop him. Everyone else is startled and turns to face him. He furrows his brow and stares over the wall to his left intently.

 

**EXANDA: ^ heard footsteps. someone’s nearby and they’re runn^ng.**

**EXANDA: AGH!**

**PREEDO: rrWhat?rr**

**EXANDA: someone crawled over a wall over there and d^sappeared!**

**PREEDO: rrMust have jumped down into a nearby corridor like this onerr**

**PREEDO: rrWhatd they look like?rr**

**EXANDA: couldn’t tell, they’re wear^ng a heavy cloak.**

**EXANDA: there they are aga^n! they’re head^ng towards us!**

**ASTRAH: judgment!**

Judgment floats over.

 

**JUDGMENT: Someone’s advancing towards you?**

**ASTRAH: yeah! anything y-o-u can d-o-?**

**JUDGMENT: I’m not meant to hold your hands through everything. You’re on your own here.**

 

To make its point clearer, it vanishes into a wall, leaving only a short ripple behind.

 

**ASTRAH: crap!!**

**DREKUL: Yes! About time he took himself away!**

**EXANDA: they’re here!**

 

The figure scales the wall on your left and leaps down, cloak billowing out behind them.

 

==-> Be Exanda.

 

You are now Exanda, and it could be said by a more level-headed observer of events that you’re panicking. Great! In response to a presumably Spire-dwelling savage leaping straight at you from over a wall, Preedo (who you’re currently on top of) falls backwards into a fighting position, which leaves you desperately stabilising yourself on his shoulders. Preedo throws his hands out in front of his face – too late! Now the figure is clinging to his head and hollering.

 

**??????: :} < stop! stop stop stop! i mea-**

 

The interloper’s spiel is interrupted when Preedo grips them by the ribs and hurls them to the ground with a thud followed by a cry of pain. The hood falls back onto the figure’s shoulders.

 

Preedo steps hurriedly over to survey his foe, Parchi jumps in front of him and Drekul drags Astrah closer. The figure is a boy and judging by the colour of his cheeks he is an oliveblood, almost as tall as Drekul. His eyes flit fearfully from one member of your group to another, and seemingly unthinkingly he attempts to get back up. Parchi grabs hold of him with her psionics immediately, bolts of green and yellow electricity grasping his wrists and holding him against the white floor.

 

**PREEDO: rrWho are you?!rr**

**??????: :} < my name is MANOOL KOTTUR.**

**MANOOL: :} < please, listen to me! we’re all in danger!**

**DREKUL: Who is “we”?**

**MANOOL: :} < we’ve lived here all our lives. we had nowhere to go but the spire.**

**MANOOL: :} < but now judgment’s told us of outsiders and… _she_ ’s taken over!**

**ASTRAH: -o-h n-o-**

**ASTRAH: what… has she d-o-ne?**

**MANOOL: :} < she’s huge and terrifying! she saw my friends and took over their minds! they’ll be here any second!**

**PREEDO: rrWhat?!rr**

**DREKUL: Exanda! Peep past the partition again!**

 

Drawing your eyes from the tortured figure, you whip your head around to gaze to the left again. Sure enough…

 

**EXANDA: more people! at least four!**

**ASTRAH: HHHHHHHHRRRRRGH…**

**ASTRAH: _DIIIIIIIRTFAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!!!!!!!_**

 

Astrah, shaking on the spot, clenches her fists in front of her face before throwing her head back and letting out a roar of pure rage. Drekul tuts. You blush.

 

**DREKUL: Astounding actions, Astrah! Now they know well where we’re waiting!**

 

He summons his saw and brandishes it. Using it as a pointer he begins giving orders.

 

**DREKUL: Parchi, secure the prisoner!**

**MANOOL: :} < prisoner?!**

**DREKUL: Temporarily, thank you.**

**PARCHI: #ON IT!#**

 

Gripping Manool with a cloud of electricity, Parchi moves him to the right wall of the corridor and jumps in front of him.

 

**MANOOL: :} < is this necessary?!**

**PARCHI: #I DUNNO, I JUST WORK #ERE!#**

**DREKUL: Exanda!**

**EXANDA: uh, um, what?!**

**DREKUL: Help me! How long until the lowlifes are at our location?**

**EXANDA: ermmm…**

 

Squinting, you do a quick calculation.

 

**EXANDA: about fifteen seconds!**

**DREKUL: Preedo, protect him!**

**DREKUL: Astrah, you’re going to grasp them with telekinesis in time!**

**ASTRAH: fine!**

**EXANDA: five seconds!**

 

Preedo puts you back down on the ground and braces for an assault from above. He summons his gauntlets as you bring out your pistol, stepping out slightly from behind Preedo so you can get a clear shot. A fighter you are not, but you are something of a gunslinger. The sounds of scampering feet grow louder and then…

 

**ASTRAH: HRAAAGH!**

 

Four intruders jump down from the wall above you only to suddenly slow to a stop before hitting the ground. As they struggle, white light illuminates their limbs, Astrah’s power forcing them to stay still. Drekul sneers, and for a second you swear you see a flash of red in his eyes.

 

**DREKUL: Hahaha… ATTACK!**

 

Astrah smashes the four into the ground.

 

**PREEDO: rrBut Drekul! These people are being mind controlled! Its not fair to kill them!rr**

**DREKUL: Ugh, alright! Don’t kill, disable only!**

 

Preedo nods and rapidly approaches one of the wildlings. A short groan of pain came from the raggedy troll, before Dirtfang assumed control and her silent determination forced itself upon the child in pain. Preedo smashed his iron-clad fist into the troll’s leg, causing them to screech in pain.

 

**MANOOL: :} < NO!**

**PARCHI: #IF WE DON’T STOP YOUR FRIENDS #ERE, T#EY’LL KILL US!#**

**PARCHI: #T#EY’RE NOT T#EMSELVES, WE #AVE NO C#OICE!#**

**ASTRAH: dirtfang’s g-o-nna PAY f-o-r this!**

 

Preedo finishes breaking a leg each on the mind-controlled savages. Astrah releases her mental control, letting the poor dupes roll around in agony. There is silence for a few seconds, but then, out of the corner of your eye…

 

**EXANDA: ASTRAH!**

 

BANG! The fifth wildling who was about to drop down onto Astrah is shot in the leg. They hit the ground, a brutal-looking serrated dagger clattering away from their hand.

 

**ASTRAH: …w-o-w, i nearly died**

**ASTRAH: thanks exanda**

**EXANDA: erm, ^, um, no problem?**

 

She smiles at you for a second and you abashedly avert your eyes.

 

**PARCHI: #W#AT ARE WE GONNA DO WIT# T#ESE DUPES?#**

**ASTRAH: we can’t risk dirtfang regaining c-o-ntr-o-l -o-ver them fr-o-m a distance**

**PREEDO: rrWe can use the rope to secure themrr**

**DREKUL: These restraints will require all but a small shred of our supply…**

**ASTRAH: shut up**

You hurry to assist. Preedo, who was carrying the rope (after the failed attempt at sending him deeper into the Spire alone), waited for Astrah to telekinetically force the incapacitated wildlings into a clump, before winding it around their bodies. Astrah tied the knot, leaving the now uncontrolled fighters restrained and battered, but alive.

 

**ASTRAH: -o-nce dirtfang gets her c-o-meuppance, these guys sh-o-uld be able t-o- get help fr-o-m their friends**

**MANOOL: :} < i’ll make they’re aided… if we can beat her…**

**PARCHI: #MANOOL, COULD YOU #ELP US REAC# DIRTFANG?#**

**MANOOL: :} < yes… but we have to be cautious.**

**MANOOL: :} < she might take control from afar!**

**DREKUL: Alright. Present the pathway to us.**

**MANOOL: :} < there is a quick way…**

 

Manool braces himself and leaps… all the way up to the top of the wall that his friends had attacked from.

 

**DREKUL: What! We can’t access that altitude!**

**PARCHI: #DREKUL#**

**PARCHI: #YOU’RE AN IDIOT#**

 

With that, Parchi cracks her knuckles and green and yellow electricity surrounds the four of you and herself. You suddenly feel lighter. Parchi throws her arms over her head, and all of you are gently lifted to the top of the wall, an astounded Manool watching as you float all the way over the wall he’s standing on and land on the next one over. Parchi flies over to Manool, electricity crackling in arcs between her horns.

 

**PARCHI: #DON’T WORRY ABOUT DREKUL, #E’S AN IDIOT#**

**MANOOL: :} < heh. maybe so.**

**MANOOL: :} < i like you parchi (is it parchi?)**

**MANOOL: :} < you’re like me, like us.**

**PARCHI: #I’M A DISGUSTING SAVAGE?#**

**MANOOL: :} < not disgusting. not savage.**

**MANOOL: :} < untamed, free, able to make your own choices and push your limits.**

 

Manool leaps over to join you and Parchi follows.

 

**PARCHI: #SO WE JUST KEEP GOING T#IS WAY?#**

Parchi points straight ahead, but Manool shakes his head and moves her finger a little to the left.

 

**MANOOL: :} < this way to the tribe.**

**MANOOL: :} < but we’ll have to be sneaky.**

**EXANDA: but we could hear you com^ng from a long way away!**

**EXANDA: the chances of sneak^ng ^nto the tr^be your way are sl^m to none ^f you ask me!**

**PARCHI: #I T#INK WE’LL #AVE A BETTER C#ANCE OF SURPRISING DIRTFANG IF WE USE MY POWERS TO GET T#ERE BY AIR#**

**PREEDO: rrBut Parchi, what about-rr**

**ASTRAH: whatever gets us t-o- dirtfang faster!**

**ASTRAH: wh-o- kn-o-ws what s-o-rt -o-f cha-o-s she’s causing?**

**ASTRAH: c-o-me -o-n parchi, y-o-u can d-o- it!**

**PARCHI: #I KNOW I CAN#**

**PREEDO: rrParchi!rr**

 

Looking from a nervous Preedo to Parchi, you’re about to say something before she cracks her knuckles again and power starts building in the air. The smell of ozone invades your nostrils before an eruption of electricity sends you all flying at high velocity into the air. Aside from an intermittent crackling sound, Parchi’s psionics are mostly silent. After rising a certain distance, Parchi changes direction and all of you begin moving towards the camp, following Manool’s instruction.

 

**MANOOL: :} < such incredible power… how old are you?**

**PARCHI: #CAN’T… TALK… NOW…#**

 

Below you the labyrinth of corridors filling the Spire twist and turn dizzyingly, filling the entire gigantic space not taken up by the entrance hall. From this vantage point you can see the roof of this floor of the Spire, at least a mile up.

 

**EXANDA: hoo boy… ^ knew th^s place was b^g… but to see ^t w^th my own glance nuggets…**

 

Shortly, Manool points downwards without a word, and Parchi begins to descend. Below, you can see a vast square area connected to the greater maze of corridors by an exit at each corner.  The waterfall from high above falls upon the centre of this area. Within it, you can see huge barrels positioned below the leak to collect the water and store it. Present in the room also are small fabric tents and various bundles and parcels stacked near and around them. Many figures stand below, perfectly still, and you can only hope that none of them see you.

 

**MANOOL: :} < okay parchi, we’re nearly there! just set us down gently and quietly near the camp and we can sneak in**

**PREEDO: rrTake it easy, please take it easyrr**

**PARCHI: #ALMOST T#ERE… almost… t#ere…#**

 

There’s a sickening lurch before Parchi tightens her grip on you all again.

 

**PREEDO: rrOh no, Parchi, bring us down now!rr**

**PARCHI: #gotta… do it, preedo…#**

Another shift in weight and gravity accompanies these words, lasting for longer than before, this time accompanied by a chorus of surprised yells. Your descent speed seems to increase.

 

**PREEDO: rrParchi!rr**

**PARCHI: #no…#**

 

And then you’re falling. Luckily there was only about twenty-five feet between you and the ground. But unluckily, _there’s twenty-five feet between you and the ground_. The Spire’s spotless white floor approaches sickeningly fast. It seems like you no longer have control of your body, as if your mind knows that any action is futile. You brace for impact, eyes screwed shut in fear, but you hardly feel ready…

 

You decelerate before you hit the ground. Pain still erupts throughout your body, but you’re bruised instead of broken. Parchi also lands comparatively softly, and you notice a white glow around her body that disappears once she’s settled on the ground. The others are not so lucky, hitting the ground significantly harder than you. Preedo gets up shortly, wincing at various pains all over his body, but Manool can only groan, curled up in a ball, and Drekul seems knocked out. Astrah is the last to land. She falls onto her knees as her power dissipates, gasping for breath.

**EXANDA: astrah… you saved our l^ves**

**ASTRAH: i… supp-o-se i did**

**ASTRAH: d-o-n’t w-o-rry y-o-urself with me, check -o-n the -o-thers!**

**EXANDA: uh, r^ght!**

You stand up and suck in a breath through your teeth as you put weight on your sore legs. You step over to Parchi, who raises her head slightly to gaze at you.

 

**EXANDA: hey, parch^… you alr^ght?**

**PARCHI: #…w#at… do you… t#ink…#**

 

She coughs out a spurt of yellow blood and, after groaning at the sight, squirms away from the stain, which is shortly absorbed by the floor.

 

**PARCHI: #you guys (*#URK*) #andle t#is… on your own…#**

**PREEDO: rrOh God, Parchi…rr**

 

Preedo steps over, slowly and carefully, with a remorseful look in his eye. Without another word he gently scoops her up and gives her a hug. Holding her with one arm against his stomach, he fishes around in his pocket, smiles slightly as he finds something, and pulls out a chunk of meat, offering it to Parchi. She gives him a deadpan look, and in response he puts the meat back and brings out a water bottle, which she accepts gingerly.

 

**PREEDO: rrIts a shame that we left Purrseus with all your fruit, right Parchi?rr**

**PARCHI: #…#**

 

Astrah looks on with profound sadness.

**ASTRAH: …this is my fault**

**ASTRAH: i was the -o-ne wh-o- pushed y-o-u**

**ASTRAH: s-o- we c-o-uld reach dirtfang faster…**

**ASTRAH: …this wasn’t w-o-rth it…**

 

You don’t know what to say, so you just hang your head, downcast. You always have this problem in situations like this: you’re afraid you’ll make things worse. Stuff in real life never works out the way you think it will, the way it does in books. But you feel like you can at least offer Parchi an apology for contributing to her current state. You walk over to Preedo and pat her on the shoulder. She moves to brush you off, but you can tell that she doesn’t mean it.

 

**EXANDA: ^’m sorry, parch^…**

**ASTRAH: me t-o-o-**

**MANOOL: :} < uurgh…**

 

Manool stands up, hunched over and rubbing his head.

 

**MANOOL: :} < we’re… nearly there…**

**ASTRAH: i’m s-o-rry f-o-r what she’s d-o-ne t-o- y-o-ur friends as well, man-o-o-l**

**ASTRAH: but it’s nearly -o-ver. i’m g-o-nna fix this**

 

You want to ensure she’s not alone against Dirtfang, but you’re conflicted. Going up against her wouldn’t even be a fight: she’d dominate you with ease, and if the stories are true, she likely wouldn’t even have to use her powers to manipulate you. Going to aid Astrah might not help: for all you know, it could just give her an additional pawn. But…

 

**EXANDA: astrah, ^’m go^ng to help you!**

 

She looks at you and attempts to smile.

 

**ASTRAH: thanks**

 

You stand up straighter and look around, taking care not to stare at Parchi. The walls are adorned with serpents as before, but their still heads are adorned with green cheek swirls. Unlike the entrance hall, there is no carpet here. You presume that the wildling colony is only a short walk away. Meeting Astrah’s eyes, you blush again, and turn to address your teammates with confidence.

 

**EXANDA: so… who’s com^ng w^th astrah?**

**MANOOL: :} < i am. dirtfang’s messing with the wrong trolls.**

**PREEDO: rrIve got to stay here with Parchi and Drekuls still out for the countrr**

**PREEDO: rrIm sorry Exanda…rr**

**EXANDA: ^t’s alr^ght preedo. ^’ve l^ved th^s long, ^’ll surv^ve th^s.**

**PREEDO: rrDont SAY things like that!rr**

Preedo’s head suddenly shoots up to glare at you, his face contorted with pain.

 

**PREEDO: rrYoure really freaking me out here!rr**

**EXANDA: …um, okay.**

**EXANDA: we’re gonna beat her!**

**PREEDO: rrNO! Dont go! Shell kill you!rr**

**EXANDA: but preedo! ^f ^ don’t go she m^ght k^ll astrah and manool!**

**PREEDO: rrYou cant face her!rr**

**EXANDA: that’s r^ght, preedo! ^ HAVE to!**

**EXANDA: ^f ^ don’t start f^ght^ng my own battles ^’ll never l^ve, preedo! ^ won’t overcome the sp^re or be able to surv^ve out ^n the world!**

**EXANDA: how am ^ gonna complete my Ordeals ^f ^ never r^se to challenges? get you to do them for me?!**

**PREEDO: rrPlease, Exanda! Im not gonna let you go!rr**

**EXANDA: preedo!**

**EXANDA: …**

You ball up your hands into fists, your claws biting into your palms. You clench your eyes shut as you collect your thoughts and push the building anger out of your system.

 

**EXANDA: ^’ll… be back.**

**PREEDO: rrExanda…rr**

 

You turn and begin walking, forming a mental map based on your aerial view of the labyrinth. Astrah, surprised, begins following you, as does a confused and hasty looking Manool. Before you go, you turn around to see Preedo, still cradling Parchi, hang his head.

 

**PREEDO: rr…if you have to… good luck…rr**

 

Manool and Astrah take the lead from you as the three of you silently weave your way through the foreboding corridors towards an inevitable evil. You’re burning with passion unlike anything you’ve ever felt in your short, simple life. You hope that the two older trolls can’t see you start to cry.


	8. The Guide and the Gambler (Pt. 2)

==-> Be Astrah.

 

You are now Astrah Mitium, and to say that you’re torn emotionally would be an understatement. Your thoughts are stuck between kicking yourself and, despite your awareness of how shameful it is, trying to find someone to blame. The first damnable car on the train of thought conjured as you walk steadily and quietly is the image of Drekul’s fake smile, and how much you want to spit in it. He was the one that put looking superior over thinking through releasing a powerful mind-controller into a nest of potential thralls. Next up is Dirtfang’s dead-eyed glare. She’s the one endangering these people. Your final thought is of Parchi in Preedo’s arms, so small and in so much pain. You tighten your hand into a fist. You hope that your allies don’t think you’re about to cry.

 

Manool suddenly throws up his arm before you turn a right corner. You hear Exanda come to a halt. Mercifully, he doesn’t choose to look at you until you’ve managed to compose yourself.

 

**MANOOL: :} < we live just around this corner.**

**MANOOL: :} < this is where you’ll find our enemy.**

**ASTRAH: alright…**

**ASTRAH: man-o-o-l, i really can’t ask y-o-u t-o- walk int-o- her clutches with me**

**MANOOL: :} < but this is my home! i’m gonna show her she can’t push me around!**

**ASTRAH: she d-o-esn’t need t-o- push y-o-u ar-o-und, she can literally c-o-ntr-o-l y-o-ur mind**

**ASTRAH: she was the str-o-ngest cerulean psi-o-nic -o-f her time, and -o-nly i can st-o-p her because i was the -o-ne wh-o- raised her insidi-o-us ass fr-o-m death**

**ASTRAH: even still, i’ll pr-o-bably need backup**

 

Exanda wanted to help and came with you. You don’t intend to get him killed (Preedo will murder you or die trying if you do), but any support will be useful against Dirtfang’s army. You turn to look at Exanda.

 

**ASTRAH: hey exanda, i-**

 

You have to pause as your protein chute locks up. You’ve caught Exanda in the middle of wiping pale brown tears off of his cheeks. He makes a strange, pitiable sound, like a sob, snort and squeak rolled into one and does his best to appear like he hadn’t been crying.

 

**EXANDA: umm, what, uh, what ^s ^t?**

**EXANDA: …ugh, why bother? you saw me cry^ng.**

 

He looks down at the floor.

 

**EXANDA: ^ feel awful for leav^ng preedo, astrah.**

**EXANDA: he’s so scared for me!**

**EXANDA: but the worst b^t ^s that he actually trusts me! how could ^ ever l^ve up to h^s p^cture of me… when ^’m so pathet^c…**

You stay standing straight up, but quickly take his hand from his side. His head shoots up to look at you. You do your best to appear composed, serious and knowing. He’s got to hear what you’re going to say, for God’s sake.

 

**ASTRAH: what’s the p-o-int, exanda, -o-f talking like that?!**

**ASTRAH: y-o-u d-o-n’t want to let him d-o-wn?**

**ASTRAH: preed-o- is y-o-ur best friend! he’s -o-nly scared that y-o-u’ll get hurt!**

**ASTRAH: and if y-o-u care ab-o-ut his feelings s-o- much, just d-o-n’t die -o-n us!**

**ASTRAH: y-o-u’re a waste z-o-ner, y-o-u must be g-o-o-d at staying alive, s-o- really i d-o-n’t see why y-o-u’re w-o-rried en-o-ugh t-o- cry!**

The shock disappears from his face and you can tell that he at least absorbed what you said. You allow your expression to soften into a smile. _I still like you, we’re still friends_ , you’re trying to say with it. You give him a quick hug and go to continue saying what you were before, but it seems like he needs a second to recover his bearings, blushing the colour of burnished brass. Manool, who has been watching your exchange disinterestedly so far cracks a small grin and sidles up towards you.

 

**MANOOL: ;} < (astrah i think he has a crush on you)**

**EXANDA: WHAT?! n-not at all!**

**ASTRAH: hey, hey, remember what i said ab-o-ut keeping -o-ur heads -o-n straight? we’ve still g-o-t a murderer t-o- murder**

**ASTRAH: anyway, exanda, y-o-u’ll be my backup. y-o-u’re small but y-o-u have a gun and dirtfang will likely f-o-cus all her attenti-o-n -o-n me**

**ASTRAH: h-o-w many pe-o-ple are in y-o-ur tribe, man-o-o-l?**

**MANOOL: :} < 68.**

**ASTRAH: jesus pissfucking christ, what’s dirtfang thinking?**

**ASTRAH: with her attenti-o-n divided between s-o- many slaves, she’ll barely be able t-o- think straight let al-o-ne fight me**

**ASTRAH: anyway, this is g-o-o-d f-o-r us**

**ASTRAH: exanda, d-o-n’t draw attenti-o-n to y-o-urself and if things g-o- wr-o-ng, sh-o-o-t her in the head**

**MANOOL: :} < PLEASE don’t shoot anymore of my tribe.**

**MANOOL: :} < but if her consciousness is divided so much, won’t i be able to help as well if i’m stealthy?**

**EXANDA: she knows me. she’d never expect me to hurt her.**

You look anxiously at the turn you’ll have to make to face her.

 

**ASTRAH: -o-kay, man-o-o-l, what’s the area like?**

**MANOOL: :} < once you turn and make it to the tribe, there’ll be a wall to your left and loads of space in front and to your right.**

**MANOOL: :} < the tribe takes up a box that’s 45 feet on all its sides.**

**MANOOL: :} < there are tents and some stuff that judgment gave us from the upper levels, as well as our water barrels.**

**MANOOL: :} < the boss’ throne is in the middle of the room.**

**ASTRAH: kn-o-wing dirtfang, she’s pr-o-bably put her ancient hams right in the middle -o-f it**

**EXANDA: who’s your boss?**

**MANOOL: :} < JOZZUV GRIMAL, purpleblood, the oldest among us. she was the person that tried to stab you, astrah.**

**MANOOL: :} < i mean, dirtfang made her try to stab you.**

**ASTRAH: -o-kay, i’ll g-o- in and feign getting captured**

**ASTRAH: exanda, y-o-u’ll f-o-ll-o-w behind while she’s distracted with me**

**ASTRAH: use y-o-ur waste z-o-ner senses t-o- pick up her stupid m-o-n-o-l-o-gue, m-o-ve in, and attack if it seems like i’m dextrinised grubl-o-af**

**ASTRAH: man-o-o-l, y-o-u’re in reserve in case things get really bad**

**ASTRAH: try and get the -o-thers if b-o-th exanda’s head and mine are -o-n the ch-o-pping bl-o-ck**

 

You take a deep breath, shut your eye for a second to take a deep breath, and then exhale. It does nothing to make you feel less tense. Making sure that your footfalls are quiet, you begin to edge around the corner. Your view shifts towards a perfectly normal corridor, about ten feet long, that joins up with an open space, the right wall disappearing and the left wall continuing before turning right and forming the far wall of the room.

 

==-> Astrah: Stealth time.

 

Okay, you can do this. You walk, slowly and carefully, to the end of the corridor, with the sound of the waterfall growing louder the closer you come. You flatten yourself against the right wall, and wince at the tiny “thud” sound you inadvertently make. You look back to see if Exanda is following. He is, nervously, and you notice that he’s taken off his shoes and is walking in his socks. He catches up to you, ties his shoelaces around his neck so that his shoes dangle down over his chest, and gives a smile of unconvincing confidence.

 

You nod and continue into the room. From here you can see the water curtain, loud enough that it obscures the sound of your steps, pouring down into massive white barrels. You think they could be composed of the stuff of the Spire itself. Unfortunately, the constant flow of water warps the image of whatever is beyond it, so you can only make out the shadows of countless forms, all draped in what looks to be either the Spire’s red carpet or other fabrics of brown, grey and black. Watching over them is the phantom form of the throne, and a hunched figure with unmistakable mismatched horns sitting upon it.

 

You crouch and proceed towards one of the barrels, hiding behind it. You can feel it shuddering slightly because of all the water entering it. Out of curiosity, you peek over the edge of the barrel to look inside. Though droplets of water splash up into your face, you can see that the barrel is very nearly full. But just as you’re about to return to your hiding place, the flow of water rapidly begins to slow. Holes appear in the veil between you and the tribe.

 

==-> Astrah: HIDE.

 

You dart down, as quietly as possible. Just as the barrel fills up to its rim, the flow of water stops.

 

 _The flow of water must be cyclic_ , you think, _they get all their water for the night, use it, and then refill the barrels_. You wonder how the barrels could be just the right size to be filled up to the brim without overflowing by the seemingly randomly falling water, but it occurs to you that Judgment might have had something to do with it.

 

For now, you wait, snapping your head from side to side, desperate for any indication that it’s safe for you to proceed. You think you’ll need help, but you have to signal Exanda.

 

You summon your belt and silently put it on the floor, taking care not to let the buckle click or make any sounds. You focus your powers upon it, and it levitates slightly, the white glow surrounding it almost eliminating the shadow it casts. You snake it forwards, directing it towards the exit with increasing speed. It’s getting closer, it’s almost there…

 

A hand comes down, out of nowhere, and violently grasps your right horn. A yell of surprise erupts from your lips as the unknown assailant squeezes, sending a nauseating ripple of sensory data into your skull. You try to push yourself to your feet, but you feel a gun barrel press against the side of your head.

 

**EXANDA: Hello Astrah.**

**EXANDA: I’m glad you came right to me.**

**EXANDA: I was getting _8ored_.**

 

The gun is removed as you are pulled to your feet, only for it to be jammed against the back of your head. Whoever’s holding you releases your horn and the sensation stops. Exanda walks into your field of vision, and on his face is an expression that Exanda would never wear. His accent and tone of voice have changed as well.

 

==-> Astrah: Use psionics.

 

Thinking quickly, you focus your power on the circle of cold steel you can feel on your head. It flies upwards, and whoever’s behind you lurches back in shock. As the gun sails through the air, you reach out and envelop the belt with your invisible hand once again, causing it to soar through the air in a wide arc, clapping Exanda’s horn with the buckle. A cry of pain emerges from him, and he doubles over, clasping the spot where the belt made contact. It flies on and you turn around to see your assailant, a burly young man, probably indigo. As soon as you can, you wrap the belt around the boy’s throat, choking him.

 

But now that you’ve turned around, you can see-

 

You hear a whistle. You feel a force push you backwards slightly, enough to cause you to stumble. Sharp pain consumes your abdomen and reaches out across your body. You’ve been shot with an arrow to your right side, right about where you think your abdominal sausages are. You involuntarily let out a very unbadass yelp and the belt clatters to the ground. Immediately, wildlings weave between the barrels and try to restrain you. When you attempt to fight back, one grips the arrow and pushes it deeper into your flesh. But you don’t feel anything. You have to pretend like you did though, so you grimace and yell between gritted teeth. Your pain receptors must have shut off in that area. Thinking that you’re too hurt to fight back, six of Dirtfang’s thralls surround you, all pointing weapons towards your head, and begin to push you towards the central throne.

 

Once you’ve inched forward enough, they retreat, but still keep their weapons trained on you. Dirtfang looks down from the throne directly in front of you, surrounded by countless watchful trolls, all obviously under her control. Exanda, once again being puppeteered, strides in to join the crowd. In her time away from you, she’s gained control over her half-spectral body, restoring her old form, that of a glamourous and terrifying pir8, wearing a dashing blue and black outfit as well as red boots.

 

**DIRTFANG: You let me get away from you. That was a 8ig mistake. 8ut it was the lucky 8reak I needed.**

**ASTRAH: care t-o- explain why y-o-u’re d-o-ing this?**

**DIRTFANG: As the psionic resistance of most of your friends was too great, there was no way I could assert my control without you stopping me up until recently.**

**DIRTFANG: Now I am once again enjoying the position of power, as I did millions of sweeps ago.**

**ASTRAH: y-o-u’ve g-o-t me, that’s f-o-r sure**

**ASTRAH: s-o-…**

You hang your head, trying to look defeated.

 

**ASTRAH: -o-nce y-o-u’re d-o-ne with me, please leave these pe-o-ple al-o-ne**

**DIRTFANG: You can stop faking that injury.**

 

You jerk back and gaze at her, surprised. Her goons, extensions of her will, begin to chuckle as they prod you back into a supplicatory pose with swords, spears and shivs.

 

**DIRTFANG: I’ve dealt with every kind of su8terfuge that a living mind could devise. Also, I read minds! Nothing gets past me.**

**DIRTFANG: I’ve looked into Exanda’s memories, so I know all a8out the “patches of non-sensation” you neglected to inform me of.**

**ASTRAH: why d-o-es it matter when y-o-u’re ab-o-ut t-o- kill me?!**

**DIRTFANG: No, Astrah!**

 

The wildlings draw back from you. Hesitantly, you stand up, thankful that you still can’t feel the arrow wound. Dirtfang leans forward on the throne, glaring down at you.

 

**DIRTFANG: _You’re_ going to kill _me_.**

**ASTRAH: …**

**ASTRAH: that’s… n-o-t g-o-ing to happen.**

**DIRTFANG: Of course it isn’t. I deserve to 8e punished, isn’t that right? I’m an evil “8rain-rapist” and a murderer.**

**DIRTFANG: You might want to reconsider your statement.**

**DIRTFANG: 8ecause right now, you’re in no position to refuse me.**

**DIRTFANG: O8serve.**

 

One of the trolls, a girl, closest to Dirtfang grabs a nearby boy and forces him to his knees. She holds a knife against his throat. Another troll on the other side of the throne does the same to Exanda. Neither of the captives flinch at all.

 

**ASTRAH: -o-h n-o-!**

**ASTRAH: LET THEM G-O-!**

**DIRTFANG: You 8rought this upon yourself, Astrah.**

**ASTRAH: n-o- i didn’t!**

**DIRTFANG: You knew who I was when you dragged me 8ack to this hellish world! Yet you thought you could control me.**

**DIRTFANG: You foolish girl! You even let me go yourself!**

**ASTRAH: y-o-u deserve punishment f-o-r y-o-ur crimes!**

**DIRTFANG: I got my punishment! I lost everyone I ever knew to my own folly! I DIED SO THIS WORLD COULD HAVE A FUTURE!**

**DIRTFANG: I’m giving you the chance to stop me once and for all. If you don’t take it…**

**DIRTFANG: These deaths will 8e all on you.**

**DIRTFANG: Go on. I won’t stop you.**

**ASTRAH: …**

 

Dirtfang spreads out her arms, as if inviting you into an embrace as the best of friends.

 

**DIRTFANG: Come on! Who do you want to live? Me, or Exanda?**

**DIRTFANG: If you don’t choose quick I’ll just get it over with and move on to two more.**

 

==-> Astrah: Just do it.

 

You stand up and begin to advance. Slowly and cautiously, you work your way up to Dirtfang’s throne. It stands like a mountain before you, getting ever taller as you pass the assembled slaves, pass Exanda and the other hostage to stand at its base. She looks down on you with a wide grin.

 

**DIRTFANG: Clim8.**

 

Hesitantly but determinedly, you do so, clambering up what looks to be a mound of smashed-up, ornate furniture, worthy of the most noble household. Made of the finest woods and softest silks and adorned with gold and lime dyes. With each hold you take on this broken thing or that, and the higher you climb up this mockery of regality, you get closer to her. You hate that you have to do this, but she’s too sharp. If you try and reassert control over her powers, she’ll definitely kill the hostages before you succeed.

 

At last, you’re at eye level, supporting yourself by gripping the armrests of the throne while perched atop the mountain of broken beautiful things. She’s no longer confidently grinning, but there is still a smile there, and maybe a hint of fondness.

 

**DIRTFANG: Life will present you with many more choices like this, Astrah.**

**DIRTFANG: Sometimes you have to rail against your own morals and deny yourself what you want.**

**ASTRAH: is this why y-o-u attacked these pe-o-ple? t-o- lecture me?!**

**DIRTFANG: You needed to know this, to be a8le to make this choice.**

**DIRTFANG: Destiny is set. Fate is unchangeable. There is always a right choice.**

**DIRTFANG: Also…**

 

Her smile broadens.

 

**DIRTFANG: I’m so old, Astrah. There is no place in this world for me.**

**DIRTFANG: From now on, you’ll travel without me.**

 

You don’t want to. But you have to.

 

You summon your belt to your hand and raise it high above Dirtfang’s head. She closes her eyes.

 

**DIRTFANG: Thank you.**

 

==-> Astrah: Free her.

 

You hesitate for a single second, during which you note how much your hands are shaking. You bring the belt down onto Dirtfang’s head, the buckle making contact with her skull. The illusion of a healthy, adult troll is shattered instantly as her lifeless bones crumble to the floor and crack apart like ancient pottery.

 

You’ve lost another lusus. You’ve betrayed yourself yet again.

 

**MANOOL: :} < ASTRAH DON’T WORRY I GOT HELP!**

**PREEDO: rrASTRAH!rr**

 

You start and whip around, almost slipping off of the pile of crap. Preedo and Drekul have charged into the chamber with Manool in tow. A blast of yellow and green lightning from behind the trio indicates Parchi’s presence.

 

**EXANDA: preedo?**

 

Exanda has stood up now. The troll who was holding him down has released him and is looking very confused and wary. Preedo’s expression changes from determined to joyful.

 

**PREEDO: rrExanda! Youre okay!rr**

**PREEDO: rrI am so relieved, you have NO idea!rr**

**EXANDA: says you! ^ surv^ved be^ng… m^nd controlled, ^ th^nk?**

**DREKUL: That’s a respectable reaching, Exanda.**

**PREEDO: rrOh no, thats what I was afraid of!rr**

**PREEDO: rrGood thing Astrah was hererr**

You turn around to face him.

 

**PREEDO: rrIsnt that right As- OH MY GOD!rr**

**ASTRAH: what?**

 

He points at your abdomen. Before you can look down, you’re hit with a surge of pain, spreading out from the arrow embedded in your guts to smother your senses. You instinctively try and curl up to protect your wound, causing you to lose your balance and fall off the throne.

 

**EXANDA: ASTRAH!**

 

As you fall, you consider that this is probably the stupidest way you could die right now, but you dismiss it immediately. You’re not going to die, that would be too convenient. But before you hit the floor, you feel more than one pair of hands on you. You look down and see that a couple of the wildlings that were standing by near the throne have caught you and are in the process of standing you up so you can be supported.

 

**EXANDA: oh, phew!**

**DREKUL: Astrah! Let me look!**

 

Drekul sprints over, and then stops in front of you to wring his hands in the air.

 

**DREKUL: Argh, I forgot! The medical materials are perched on Purrseus!**

**DREKUL: Presently I’d prefer if I placed pressure near the nuisance myself.**

 

Drekul snaps as much of the arrow’s shaft as possible off and summons his saw.

 

**ASTRAH: fucking hell, careful with that!**

**DREKUL: All I have to hear from you is if I’m injuring you!**

 

Carefully, he penetrates the fabric of your shirt with the hooked end of his saw and drags it down to the shirt’s bottom, creating a diagonal line. He then does it again, creating a mirror image of the first line. He tears away the triangle of fabric, and you can see that you’re bleeding quite a bit, burgundy dribbling out morbidly and staining the waistband of your pants. You figured as much from the pain. Drekul, without warning, thrusts his palm onto your stomach, and you yell out in pain. He’s pressing on your wound, and it _hurts!_

**ASTRAH: AAAARGH!**

**DREKUL: The pressure permits the cavity’s clotting. Quit your quibbling!**

**ASTRAH: i hate y-o-u!**

**DREKUL: Ungrateful useless!**

 

You snarl at him, but he doesn’t respond, in a surprising display of self-control. He turns to Preedo.

 

**DREKUL: We must meet with Purrseus promptly!**

**PREEDO: rrOkay, but I still dont know where he is!rr**

**PARCHI: #I’LL DEAL WIT# T#IS#**

**PARCHI: #JUDGMENT!#**

 

The wall ripples and the icosahedral form of the artificial intelligence shoots out and comes to a dead halt in the air, radiating protrusions into space curiously.

 

**JUDGMENT: Excellent work, _progenea hakea ra vantas una peta_!**

**PREEDO: rr(Does that mean us? I forget)rr**

**EXANDA: (“ch^ldren hatched ^n blood and f^lth”, yes)**

**JUDGMENT: You’ve dealt with the Mindfang problem with admirable thoroughness!**

 

A second Judgment body forms from the floor to hover over the shattered husk of Dirtfang. It tuts to itself.

 

**J2DGMENT: (I can’t use her imprint…)**

It disappears. The first Judgment bounces in midair.

**JUDGMENT: Anyway, now I can lead you to Purrseus!**

**JUDGMENT: Jeez, that’s a nasty wound, Astrah. According to my calculations, without Drekkie boy’s supplies you’ll bleed to death in-**

**PARCHI: #NOBODY FUCKING CARES, T#ANKS#**

**ASTRAH: i care but i’d rather n-o-t kn-o-w, if y-o-u get what i mean**

**PARCHI: #TELL US W#ERE PURRSEUS IS, PLEASE!#**

**JUDGMENT: Follow me! One of you will have to assist _lo Gyama_ in addition to Drekul, though.**

**PREEDO: rr(Exanda??)rr**

**EXANDA: (“the wayward”)**

**PREEDO: rr(Thanks)rr**

 

As Preedo hastily asks Exanda for clarifications and Exanda helpfully gives them, Drekul eyes them crossly while keeping up the pressure on your wound, intermittently pushing harder which makes you produce a sound halfway between a pained grunt and a burp.

 

**DREKUL: Alright…**

**DREKUL: Have we made accessible the meanings of enough Ancient Alternian pronunciations for our posse to proceed?!**

**EXANDA: okay, yes, we have, drekul!**

**PREEDO: rrLets gorr**

**PARCHI: #SECONDED?** **NO, T#IRDED#**

**ASTRAH: wait!**

 

You twist your head around towards Manool and the tribe.

 

**MANOOL: :} < yes, astrah?**

**ASTRAH: thanks f-o-r g-o-ing and getting the -o-thers**

**ASTRAH: s-o-rry f-o-r all the tr-o-uble**

**MANOOL: :} < thanks for liberating us.**

**MANOOL: ;} < i suppose this makes us even.**

**ASTRAH: remember t-o- g-o- back f-o-r that j-o-zzuv chick and the -o-thers**

**MANOOL: :} < i wish you could’ve stayed longer, but such is life.**

**MANOOL: :} < sometimes you can control it, but other times it kicks you in the shame globes and shoots you with an arrow.**

**MANOOL: :} < now get outta here before you literally die.**

 

Parchi runs up and hugs him. He starts, causing some of the other wildlings to advance, before he reciprocates, and they retreat awkwardly.

 

**PARCHI: #T#ANKS FOR T#E KIND WORDS#**

**PARCHI: #SUCK IT EXANDA, T#E WILDLINGS WERE FRIENDLY!#**

**EXANDA: ^’m as glad as you are, parch^.**

**MANOOL: :} < no problem, but really, go!**

 

As Exanda and Drekul begin to lead you out, you see Parchi wave goodbye. Then Exanda and Preedo wave too, and even Drekul gives a solitary flap of the hand. It’s sweet enough coming from him that for a beautiful second you don’t want to kick him in the neck.

 

And so, you leave the tribe behind. Judgment floats away at a brisk pace, just fast enough that you and your pair of helpers struggle to keep up. Only once do you try and turn back for one last look at Dirtfang’s remains, but you can’t, and in the end, you give up as the tribe vanishes behind you. Those tiny shards of bone, so small, fragile and ancient-looking, were once part of a person. A person who did evil things, but you think you’ve come to an understanding with Dirtfang. Maybe now you even consider her a friend.

 

You suppose it’s time to stop calling her Dirtfang. And that is the moment when you let Mindfang leave the forefront of your mind. Your punishment is finished, and the prisoner is free. But you think she’ll always remain, a spectral, white figure in the dark. Accompanied by the other one you lost.

 

It’s funny, you think. Even though it’s all over you still can’t seem to cry.

 

==-> See the future.

 

Fifteen minutes into the future, the five trolls turn the final corner in the Spire’s labyrinth. Ahead of them is the final corridor, which extends only ten feet from the change in direction. At the end of the corridor, the walls open up to reveal an extremely wide white chamber with blank walls, devoid of the omnipresent serpent murals.

 

**PREEDO: rrWheres Purrseus?rr**

**JUDGMENT: Be patient.**

 

The spikes stop radiating off of Judgment. A rumbling sound starts up, steadily growing louder, and the ground beneath the five starts to tremble slightly. From the top of the labyrinth partition to the left, a dark line slices three feet up on the opposite wall’s surface before making a hard right. Along the way to the other wall, nine lines come down to meet the floor, equidistant from each other. After the first line connects with the chamber’s right barrier, there is no movement for a second before the ten rectangular segments created slide down into the floor.

 

Past the wall is an open space, thirty-five feet wide and eleven-and-a-half feet tall. The walls of the chamber are very coarse and rocklike for Spire material, but the floor is as smooth as normal and covered by a black carpet. Snoozing on the carpet’s centre is Purrseus.

 

**JUDGMENT: There you go!**

**PREEDO: rrPurrseus!rr**

**DREKUL: Good! Let’s acquire Astrah’s aid**

**ASTRAH: yep, pr-o-bably need that**

**EXANDA: what do you mean, “probably”? you can barely stand stra^ght!**

**ASTRAH: hey, i C-O-ULD stand straight… if i didn’t feel like thr-o-wing up…**

**PARCHI: #PLEASE DON’T MENTION T#ROWING UP#**

**ASTRAH: -o-h yeah, s-o-rry parchi…**

**EXANDA: by the way, parch^, how d^d you get better so qu^ckly?**

As Preedo goes over to Purrseus to wake him up, Drekul produces a test tube from his jacket pocket. Inside are many small chunks of a butter-coloured solid that he rattles around.

 

**DREKUL: “Workerswax”. Unlike those of mind honey, the side effects of the secretion are exclusively encouraging to psionics.**

**PARCHI: #DREKKO BROUG#T IT ALONG JUST IN CASE#**

**PARCHI: #IT NOURIS#ES THE FACETS OF T#E T#INKPAN NECESSARY FOR SUSTAINED USE OF PSIONICS#**

 

Preedo has stowed his gauntlets and is petting Purrseus enthusiastically, which the manybeast seems to enjoy. Preedo beckons Drekul, Astrah and Exanda over. As the two boys lead Astrah, Parchi follows behind, looking behind her to see what Judgment is doing. He hasn’t budged an inch.

 

**PREEDO: rrOkay, Purrseus is ready to see you allrr**

**PREEDO: rrHe gets stressed out if anyone other than me wakes him uprr**

Astrah is guided by Exanda and Drekul into the chamber. Drekul immediately begins fumbling with the knot holding his unmurderer’s bag shut, but to his surprise it comes apart easily. Astrah smirks at him and he rolls his eyes in chagrin back, before returning to the bag to rummage around inside it, looking for adhesive tape to stop the arrowhead from shifting around.

 

Parchi steps over the threshold into the chamber and is about to skip over to join the others when a sequence of deafening thuds stop her in her tracks. Everyone’s heads shoot around to attempt to gaze back out of the doorway into the chamber, but in a single second the rectangular blocks of white material have shot back up to re-fuse with the top of the portal The interior side of the blocks is just a coarse as the Spire stuff making up the other three walls.

 

**PREEDO: rrOh no! Purrseus, it’s all right!rr**

**ASTRAH: n-o-w I’M getting stressed -o-ut**

The room begins to shake as Judgment emerges from the floor.

 

**JUDGMENT: Don’t look so scared, guys! I have great news!**

**DREKUL: Oh, and what would it be?**

 

Immense force suddenly presses down upon the five, crushing them towards the floor. The walls turn into a white blur of motion.

 

**JUDGMENT: You’ve managed to complete the first floor of the Spirograph Spire!**

**JUDGMENT: Only 22 more to go. Hold on, let me reconfigure the place to make it easier.**

 

The floor and ceiling jerk to a halt and the downward force mercifully lets up. A series of groans and creaks make their way into the elevator chamber.

 

**JUDGMENT: You might be thinking, “hey Judgment, how could 22 floors as big as the first floor fit into the structure? After all, the first floor’s ceiling was nine miles above our heads.”**

**JUDGMENT: Well never fear, here’s your explanation!**

**EXANDA: ^ was th^nk^ng about that just now!**

**ASTRAH: that makes -o-ne -o-f us**

**JUDGMENT: Right now, the reconfigurable structure of the Spire is bunched up like an accordion, every piece fitting together so tight not even this starved little bronzeblood could squeeze through.**

**EXANDA: hey, you try l^v^ng ^n the waste zone and also not be^ng a we^rd robot!**

**JUDGMENT: I’m just unfolding everything, so you’ll have a floor to stand on, a ceiling to look up at and stuff to be inconvenienced by on every floor!**

**JUDGMENT: The height of luxury for a species as battle obsessed as yours!**

**PARCHI: #I JUST WANT TO MAKE JUNK SCULPTURES AND INSULT PEOPLE#**

**PARCHI: #FIG#TING IS BORING BECAUSE NO ONE IS STRONGER T#AN ME#**

**JUDGMENT: I like you, Parchi, but _you have no idea what's coming_.**

**JUDGMENT: Have fun, you rascally grubs! Some new concepts are introduced here, but I'll explain later.**

 

Judgment vanishes into the floor. For a second, there’s silence, and then the ten blocks slide back down, opening up the chamber to the unbelievable sight beyond.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time, we meet the Inverted...


	9. Bugs in the System

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! This chapter is silly fun, but I've kept my promise from last time...

==-> Be Parchi.

 

You are now PARCHI VALRUZ, and to be honest you’re quite impressed with what you’re looking at. Up until now, you never thought that there could be so much water in the Waste Zone. But water surrounds the five of you as you step out onto the Spire’s second level. You walk out onto a path twenty feet wide and five hundred feet long. On each side you’re flanked by huge pillars, painted violet and covered in murals of eminence rain and turbulent Byzantium oceans. Channels of water flow freely down from the cluster of cylindrical pillars at the mile-wide chamber’s centre to fill ornate pools and ponds all tiled with the same mix of violet shades as the murals.

 

Water also falls from the ceiling, dripping and pouring onto massive, totally white geometric sculptures, whose construction reflects both the Spire’s harsh artificiality and what little you know of the shapes of the ocean: the shapes of seashells and barnacles cling to sharp, orthogonal planes that intersect with organic curves and each other crazily and simultaneously. Once the water slides off the sculptures, it drips into the floor and is absorbed.

 

**PARCHI: #I’VE GOTTA SAY, JUDGMENT, T#ESE DECORATIONS AREN’T #ALF BAD#**

**PARCHI: #NOT EVEN QUARTER BAD#**

**JUDGMENT: Thank you, Parchi! I knew you would respect the art here.**

**JUDGMENT: However, I can’t take credit for the sculptures.**

**PARCHI: #O# YEA#?#**

**PARCHI: #DID ONE OF T#E WILDLINGS MAKE T#ESE?#**

**JUDGMENT: In a sense.**

**DREKUL: How exceptionally esoteric.**

**DREKUL: Anyway, I was presently pondering the perfection in these pieces as well, Parchi.**

**DREKUL: I wasn’t aware that you had acquired an appreciation for ace art.**

**PARCHI: #…DREKUL, I MAKE ART#**

**PARCHI: #YOU’VE SEEN IT#**

**DREKUL: Oh, right.**

 

You jauntily stride behind Astrah and Drekul. Astrah has had her wound patched with one of Drekul’s white pressure bandages, and he’s insisted on keeping a close eye on it, much to her chagrin. Exanda and Preedo, and their lusii, bring up the rear. Judgment was hanging above you during your conversation, but suddenly it drops down in front of Astrah and Drekul like a lead weight, even hitting the floor with a “clunk”. It’s funny enough that you start laughing.

 

**ASTRAH: ah jeez, judgment, what’s the matter? y-o-u scared me**

**ASTRAH: have y-o-u run -o-ut -o-f batteries?**

**JUDGMENT: In a sense.**

**ASTRAH: wait really?**

**JUDGMENT: Nope, just kidding!**

**PARCHI: ##A#A, YOU MAKE JOKES NOW?#**

**PARCHI: #CAUSE IF YOU DO, I’M ALL FOR IT#**

**DREKUL: It wasn’t way funny…**

**JUDGMENT: Duly noted, but it’s time to get back to business.**

Judgment rises into the air as a grinding noise begins, coming from the floor. A white block slides out of the ground adjacent to the path, twenty feet tall and long and ten feet wide. On the long side of the block, facing your group, are two five-foot squares, glowing brighter than the surrounding Spire material. In between them is a lever, and above the lever is a black screen. You step up to the lever, which is a little bit above your head but still in reach of your grabby claws.

 

**DREKUL: Well Judgment, what’re we witnessing here?**

**JUDGMENT: This device will make progressing through the Spire easier.**

**JUDGMENT: Each floor is more challenging than the last, so you’ll need to… upgrade in turn.**

**PREEDO: rrAnd this thing lets us do that?rr**

**JUDGMENT: Put a weapon in one box and something else in another.**

**ASTRAH: what b-o-x? there is n-o- b-o-x**

**JUDGMENT: There can be if you _believe~_!**

**PREEDO: rrIm going to give it a gorr**

**JUDGMENT: I’ll check back in once you give it a test run.**

Preedo, probably the most eager out of all of you to have new weapons, steps out as Judgment vanishes into the floor. He summons his gauntlets and approaches the object. Hesitantly, he tries to poke one of the lit squares, but the tip of his finger disappears inside. He draws it back hurriedly with a humorous expression of shock, but then he puts it back in, wiggling his hand around in the space beyond.

 

**PREEDO: rrIt kind of tingles in thererr**

 

He takes off his gauntlets and places them inside, and then begins to stand and ponder. Suddenly, you have an idea that makes you smile. You run over to Purrseus, snickering all the way, and rummage around in the single filthy knapsack that you brought on the mission (with the others hurrying you, there was no time to grab more stuff).

 

==-> Parchi: Interfere.

 

**PARCHI: ##E#E#E#E#E#E!#**

**PREEDO: rrI cant think of anything good to put in the other boxrr**

**ASTRAH: h-o-w ab-o-ut s-o-me -o-f bristledad’s spines?**

**EXANDA: uhh, you’ll have to ask h^m yourself.**

**DREKUL: Let’s not. I counsel that we consider carried crap that could add auxiliary uses to the aggression accentuators.**

**PREEDO: rr…What?rr**

**PARCHI: #OUTTA T#E WAY LONG STACK!#**

 

Running back past Drekul, you dodge Preedo and shove a fat purple beetle into the other box. Placing your hand into the box does feel like submerging it in static electricity, but in a split second you’ve up at the lever and you yank with all the force your arms can muster.

 

**PREEDO: rrParchi!rr**

 

Above the lever, the black screen lights up white, but in the middle is a black symbol: two vertical lines side-by-side, “||”. Preedo goes silent to observe the screen. After five seconds, the symbol changes to “&&”.

 

**PARCHI: ##U##**

**DREKUL: Whatever that weird sound was, please never pronounce it again.**

**PARCHI: #BITE ME, DREKKIE#**

**PARCHI: #I T#INK T#AT…** **IF I PULL T#E LEVER AGAIN T#E ITEMS IN T#E BOXES WILL COMBINE#**

**PREEDO: rrFine, go aheadrr**

**PREEDO: rrI just hope I dont lose my gauntlets…rr**

**PARCHI: #BUGS ARE GREAT, PREEDS#**

**PARCHI: #IF ANYT#ING, T#IS’LL MAKE ‘EM…#**

==-> Parchi: Complete alchemy.

 

You grip the lever again and yank just as the symbol changes back to “||”.

 

**PARCHI: #BUGTASTIC!#**

 

The screen flashes the same image, but with reverse colours for a second before the lever resets and it turns black again. A compartment the same size as the other two appears just below the box on the right (containing the beetle). There is no glowing screen to obscure the contents, so when Preedo reaches in to remove the items, you can see them in all their glory.

 

PURPLE BEETLE || VIOLENCE MITTENS = BEETDOWN MITTENS

 

On Preedo’s hands are two glossy purple gauntlets. On each of the knuckles are metal beetles. The undersides of the gauntlets are decorated with what look to be curled black bug legs, pressed against the “body”. Preedo weighs them tentatively and inspects them.

 

**PREEDO: rrTheyre much lighter than they were before…rr**

 

He throws a punch against the air, and a smile breaks out on his face.

 

**PREEDO: rrI love them! Thanks Parchi!rr**

**PARCHI: #W#AT CAN I SAY? I’M BASICALLY A LIVING GOD#**

You perform a grandiose fake curtsy at Preedo, and then stick your tongue out at him. He jabs a warning finger in your direction but doesn’t stop smiling.

 

**JUDGMENT: Incredible work, grubs!**

 

Judgment reappears and forms two spikes that poke into the hidden compartments.

 

**JUDGMENT: If you want the original items back, just withdraw them from the alchelisk’s combinoports.**

**JUDGMENT: Everyone, get in on this! You only get to do it once per floor!**

 

Another block rises out of the floor. On it is a timer. No sooner has it completed its rise than it starts counting down. 10:00, 9:59, 9:58…

 

**DREKUL: Alright, let’s leap at this chance!**

**PARCHI: #I’VE GOT PLENTY OF BUGS TO GO AROUND, GUYS!#**

**ASTRAH: ab-o-ut time s-o-mething nice happened t-o- me…**

==-> Parchi: Provide bugs.

 

Everyone scrambles to begin combining. After seeing Preedo’s bugtastic gauntlets, everyone is cashing in on the chitinous craze. You keep the bugs coming.

 

CENTIPEDE && BELT = ORION’S NIGHTMARE

SCORPION || PISTOL = STINGLE-ACTION REVOLTER

 

**ASTRAH: wild, the belt m-o-ves -o-n its -o-wn!**

**EXANDA: ^ wonder ^f the bullets from th^s are po^sonous…**

 

Exanda goes to replace his pistol with the revolter, but before he can place the weapon into the combinoport, the glow snaps from white to red with an ominous buzz and he jerks his hand back.

 

**EXANDA: ^t burned me!**

**JUDGMENT: Tut tut, Exanda, let’s not get too greedy!**

**JUDGMENT: Anything made in the alchelisk can’t be combined with anything else until you reach the next floor.**

**EXANDA: how was ^ supposed to know that?**

**JUDGMENT: You weren’t. But you’d have to learn one way or another.**

 

Exanda stores the revolter in his Strife Deck with a sigh. He goes over to Purrseus himself and begins rummaging through his own luggage.

 

**PARCHI: #BUGS AREN’T CUTTING IT FOR YOU ANYMORE?#**

**EXANDA: no, that’s not the case!**

**EXANDA: ^ just want to try some comb^nat^ons of my own.**

 

Exanda brings a bundle of stuff to the alchelisk.

 

SPIRE PROPHECY TABLET || _HARREE POTTER AND THE ARCHERADICATOR’S LANCE_ = BOOKLET

 

Exanda dejectedly extracts what appears to be a sculpture of a book. He tries to open it, but it is rock solid.

 

**EXANDA: damn^t… ^’ll try the other setting.**

**DREKUL: Soon it should be my turn!**

SPIRE PROPHECY TABLET && _HARREE POTTER AND THE ARCHERADICATOR’S LANCE_ = _HARREE POTTER AND THE SPIROGRAPH SPIRE_

 

**EXANDA: N^CE!**

**DREKUL: What’s so wonderful about an adolescent’s novel?**

**EXANDA: hopefully, th^s w^ll tell us everyth^ng we need to know about the sp^re!**

**EXANDA: as harree proceeds through the story, he’ll solve the same problems as us, s^nce ^ comb^ned ^t w^th the prophecy tablet!**

**JUDGMENT: Well done, Exanda! Have a look inside, why don’t you?**

You come over to investigate while Drekul begins making something. Astrah follows too. Exanda cracks open the book excitedly but takes one look at the pages before his face falls.

 

**EXANDA: ^t’s not even language!**

**EXANDA: “GAGTACATGACCGNTGTTT…”**

**JUDGMENT: Hahahahaha! The Spire keeps its secrets well protected, even from the reality-bending power of alchemy.**

**EXANDA: ^ wonder ^f there’s p^ctures ^n th^s th^ng…**

 

Drekul finishes his combination and holds it up proudly, distracting Exanda from his book.

 

UNMURDERER’S SAW && BOX CUTTER = ADJUSTASAW

 

Drekul holds the large, grotesque weapon with two hands, like a broadsword. The box cutter’s black and yellow colouration is obscured by what looks to be dried blood splatters. By shifting his right hand up and down the handle, the sawblade extends and retracts.

 

**DREKUL: Visit this with your vision globes!**

**DREKUL: With this weapon, I will weather well the woes within the Spire!**

**ASTRAH: drekul it l-o-o-ks like y-o-u’re jacking it -o-ff**

**ASTRAH: wait y-o-u’re n-o-t very g-o-o-d at it, l-o-o-k it’s getting sh-o-rter**

**DREKUL: I hate you so fucking much.**

 

Preedo returns to the machine and stands with his back to the rest of the party. He whispers to Judgment, and then gets to work.

 

==-> Parchi: Make some more garbage.

 

ROTTEN FRUIT || ROTTEN FRUIT = ROTTEN FRUIT

ROTTEN FRUIT && ROTTEN FRUIT = ROTTEN FRUIT

ROTTEN FRUIT || ROTTEN FRUIT = ROTTEN FRUIT

ROTTEN FRUIT || ROTTEN FRUIT = ROTTEN FRUIT

 

**DREKUL: Parchi! Please refrain from replicating rotten fruit further! We would like to work.**

**PARCHI: #*BLE#*!#**

**DREKUL: Don’t you thrust your tongue towards me!**

 

After a few more combinations, the timer runs down, and the frenzy of creation ceases.

 

 _HARREE POTTER AND THE ARCHERADICATOR’S LANCE_ && GLASSES = HARREE POTTER SPECS

PRESSURE BANDAGES && WORKERSWAX = BRAINDAGES

VIOLENCE MITTENS || WORKERSWAX = BAD BEESINESS

 

**PREEDO: rrHey, Parchi!rr**

 

You stop stowing all the pieces of rotten fruit you’ve made to turn around and look at Preedo. He’s holding what looks to be a pair of tiny, honey-yellow gauntlets, with a hexagonal pattern on the dorsal side. He looks nearly as serious as normal, but there is a slight smile on his lips.

 

**PREEDO: rrYou made me some gauntlets, so I thought Id return the favourrr**

**PARCHI: #I #AVEN’T ALLOCATED MY SPECIBUS#**

**PREEDO: rrWhy not do it right now?rr**

**PREEDO: rrI thought that it would be good if you didnt have to push the limits of your powers so oftenrr**

**PARCHI: #…I APPRECIATE T#E GESTURE#**

You take the gauntlets from Preedo and pretend to put them away in your knapsack. When he’s not looking your way, you allocate your Strife Specibus to GLOVEKIND and store Bad Beesiness in the Strife Deck. Everyone forms into a group and begin showing off the goods they made. Exanda stumbles a little bit wearing the Harree Potter Specs.

 

**EXANDA: ^ know you guys can’t tell by look^ng at me, but…**

**EXANDA: jesus chr^st! ^ can’t see a th^ng!**

**ASTRAH: are they n-o-t y-o-ur prescripti-o-n?**

**EXANDA: ^t’s not that. ^t’s just that the ent^rety of archerad^cator’s lance ^s be^ng projected ^nto my eyes!**

 

He takes the glasses off with a furrowed brow, then he shrugs.

 

**EXANDA: ^ suppose that hav^ng a whole book ^n th^s easy-to-carry package ^sn’t such a bad deal, though…**

**JUDGMENT: Ahem!**

 

The alchelisk and clock summoned by Judgment slam back into the ground.

 

**JUDGMENT: I’m glad you’ve all managed to upgrade your weapons!**

**PREEDO: rrYes!rr**

**EXANDA: ^’m feel^ng pretty good about my new gun.**

 

A question suddenly forms in the back of your mind and begins eating away at your thoughts. You have to ask.

 

**PARCHI: #BUT JUDGMENT#**

**PARCHI: #W#AT ARE WE GOING TO NEED UPGRADED WEAPONS TO FIG#T?#**

 

The chamber suddenly grows a lot darker, the Spire material darkening to black so the pale, unnatural light only comes from the floor.

 

**JUDGMENT: I thought Exanda would be the one to ask that, in all honesty.**

**JUDGMENT: It took the five of you long enough.**

**PARCHI: #W#AT ARE YOU DOING?#**

**ASTRAH: -o-h n-o-**

**JUDGMENT: The last thing I’m going to provide info on is this.**

**JUDGMENT: Immediately after your ten minutes of alchelisk time is up, you’re going to have to get ready to meet the guardians of the floors.**

**DREKUL: Judgment!**

**PREEDO: rrWhat guardians?rr**

 

A spark of green flame falls down from the ceiling to land behind Judgment, down the path towards the elevator. After its landing, it grows in size and brightness despite having no fuel. The fire twists and turns in unbelievable shapes, shapes that after a while stop resembling normal fire and instead evoke the shapes of a solar storm. It towers even over Preedo. Dread suddenly floods your heart, as you get a sense of the power contained in that sickly emerald light.

 

**ASTRAH: FUCKING RUN!**

**DREKUL: Seriously?**

**ASTRAH: what the fu- YES, “SERI-O-USLY”! L-O-O-K AT THIS SHIT!**

 

An explosion of roaring flame emanates from the central inferno and no one hesitates again. You look back once at Judgment, hanging perfectly still in the air in front of the roiling blemish on reality. It seems to be taking a more defined shape.

 

**JUDGMENT: A wise decision.**

**JUDGMENT: The Inverted are quite aggressi-**

 

A green bolt of energy blasts out of the fire, ripping through Judgment’s body and shattering it into so many black shards. As a black shape like the outline of a troll in the fire begins to emerge, you turn back to the direction you’re running in, and you don’t intend to look back again.

 

On second thoughts, though… eh, you’ve been more scared before. There’s no way this “Inverted” is worse than Mom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time, God help us all, I attempt to write puzzles.


End file.
